


And as the Feeling Grows

by crossword



Series: Let their Wings Unfold [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: (Probably inaccurate), Because Nico is a literal ex machina, Because who wants to sleep in a coffin, Blame the Aphrodite kids, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fighting, Fireworks, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Healing, It's called being a teenager, Light Angst, M/M, Makeover, Medical Jargon, Minor Character Death, Panic Attacks, Partying, Protective!Annabeth, Protective!Jason, Protective!Will, Redecorating, Resurrection, Sequel, Sexual Harassment, Underage Drinking, for like two paragraphs, sexual innuendo, technically, that too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-07 07:28:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11618847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossword/pseuds/crossword
Summary: “And if you feel sick or nauseous or like you’re about to pass out, come find me.”Nico rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the butterflies making themselves at home in his chest.“Yeah, yeah, Will, relax.” He stomped up the steps to the porch of the Hades cabin, and when he turned, Will was right there, like, right in his face.The son of Apollo smiled guiltily. “Yeah, sorry. I just worry.” He took a step towards Nico. “But, just to make sure, promise me?”Nico blushed when the healer winked, then nodded. Will smiled his thousand-watt smile again.“Great!” He leaned forwards, slowly raising his hand, and Nico felt like he was burning up when long fingers brushed along his jaw. “Good to see some color there,” Will murmured, before turning and bounding off, leaving Nico to stare after him.





	1. Out of the Infirmary and into the Fire (aka Hell aka the Hades cabin)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Like Matchsticks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7292869) by [OMGitsgreen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OMGitsgreen/pseuds/OMGitsgreen). 



> Well, well, well, look who's back. A whole two months late. Oops.
> 
> Sequel to "I'm loving Angels Instead". Enjoy.

**Piper**

 

Piper was headed to the infirmary, feeling slightly ill. Not the reason she was headed there – well, not directly – but more of a symptom of it. The past few days, she’d had a hard time getting the image of Nico throwing up, struggling against her charmspeak, out of her head. He’d looked so...fragile.

 

Piper was not generally one to feel guilt about people she wasn’t close to. She’d gotten pretty good at repressing it whenever she charmspoke employees into giving her stuff – probably getting them fired in the process – or when her father inevitably found out, and she saw the frazzled look on his face. The look he got when he wondered where he’d gone wrong. Of course the anger she felt at being pushed onto the secretary helped, but perhaps she’d fallen further than she realized. She’d barely given the son of Hades a second thought back on the Argo II, even when he was obviously in pieces from his stay in Tartarus. She’d felt his pain, and she’d done nothing. Perhaps she was more like her self-absorbed mother than she thought.

 

The emotional turmoil of these thoughts was uncomfortable to say the least. The memory of Will Solace furiously putting himself between her and his patient just added fuel to the fire. So when she saw the blond healer on the porch with the son of Hades, she stopped dead in her tracks, quickly ducking behind a nearby column to conceal herself from view. One apology at a time, she told herself.

 

She expected Will to go back into the infirmary, leaving Nico alone for her to accost, so she was surprised when instead, the son of Apollo started ambling after the other boy. They appeared to be having a pretty intense discussion. And Will kept inching closer. The cogs in Piper’s mind started turning.

 

 

Two days ago, Chiara Benvenuti, the head counselor of the Tyche cabin, had stopped by Aphrodite’s. Piper generally tried to steer clear of any gossip, but she hadn’t been able to help overhear when the son of Hades was mentioned. When she’d discretely glanced over from where she was braiding her hair with some eagle feathers Jason had given her, she saw her siblings had surrounded the poor girl like a bunch of hyenas eying an injured gazelle. A particularly fitting description, given the daughter of Tyche’s doe eyes and bandaged foot. In any case, she looked uncomfortable. Piper’s siblings Aidan and Drew were leaning up on either side of her, shooting each other sidelong glances while the former tapped away on his phone and the latter filed her nails. Piper could practically see the rumours floating out in little speech bubbles from her brother’s device. Once the girl finally hoisted herself back on her feet, offering Mitchell a smile when he gallantly held the door for her and closed it again, the children of Aphrodite looked for a moment at each other, then collapsed into giggles.

 

“What’s going on guys?” Piper ventured.

 

Perfectly plucked eyebrows raised in surprise all around her.

 

“You...want to know about gossip?” Drew sounded both shocked and euphoric. Though her tone quickly took a turn for the scheming. “What have you got to offer?”

 

“Drew,” Mitchell protested. “She’s our sister, shouldn’t she be allowed in on cabin gossip?”

 

“I don’t see why,” Aidan pouted, rolling onto his back on his bed, still typing. “She never does any work on it.”

 

“Yeah, she practically looks down on it,” Drew agreed. “So why now? Still got a conscience about torturing di Angelo? Don’t worry, sweetie, keep charmspeaking and the guilt will go away, eventually.”

 

“Drew!” Mitchell protested, though halfheartedly at most.

 

Their sister just shrugged. “You know you agree with it, Mitch.” Looking back at Piper, she narrowed her perfectly made-up eyes, shaking the file. “So what’s it gonna be, _counselor_?”

 

Piper looked helplessly at Mitchell, who just shrugged.

 

“What’s the usual going price?”

 

Drew smiled like a cat that had caught the canary. “Why, information, of course. Which you’d know if you ever bothered to involve yourself in anything your siblings actually like.” She shuddered delicately. “Maybe then you’d know better than to insist on _morning runs_ too.”

 

Piper winced. The idea had been to get her charges up and moving before breakfast was half over. It had not been a good idea. Nail polish still coated the wall from the attempt.

 

She took a breath and sat down in front of her sister.

 

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

 

She saw Mitchell quietly shaking his head in the background, but it was too late. _In for a penny…_

 

Drew stretched out a hand and snapped her fingers imperiously.

 

“Aidan. The Notebook, if you please.”

 

Dropping his phone, their brother slid open a drawer on one of the dressing tables that lined the back of the room, and reverently pulled out a book. A pink, fluffy one, with hearts and glitter, to be exact. Piper winced and Drew smirked.

 

“Last thing anyone snooping would look at, right?”

 

Piper tilted her head, surprised. “I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought of that.”

 

Drew shook her head. “Of course not. You’re all about rejecting girlishness. You don’t even pause to wonder about the finer mechanisms of it.” Flipping open the book, she pulled out a much slimmer one, elegantly stitched in red leather. “Aphrodite is not just beauty and lovey dovey feels, you know. Our mother knows more about deception and manipulation than Athena ever will. How do you think Silena got away with treason for so long?”

 

Flipping through the book, she and Aidan started muttering to themselves, as Mitchell and Piper watched nervously. Finally, they seemed to settle on a page. Pulling out a pen with blood red ink, Drew looked up smugly.

 

“Now, until last Tuesday, I would have been asking you about the size of your boyfriend’s...member, but thanks to Sherman Yang’s crush on me and that day’s unfortunate slipping towel incident in the showers...we’ve got that covered.” Even Mitchell smirked a little, and Piper held back a grimace. This was not going to be fun.

 

“So really, we’ve settled on backstory. Tell me, is it true the bitch queen herself chose you as the perfect little girlfriend to her perfect little hero?”

 

Piper swallowed. “Hera chose me and Leo to give Jason fake memories about our friendship, yeah.”

 

Aidan leaned forwards. “But she specifically went out of her way to make you his girlfriend.”

 

Piper nodded, keeping her face blank. Her siblings made no such effort. Mitchell winced, and Aidan snorted.

 

“Can I lower my estimate in the betting pool? If Hera thinks they make a good couple, that romance is as good as dead.”

 

“Now, now, Aidan” Drew chided smugly. “Just because Hera poisons whatever relationship she touches, and just because the original Jason cheated on Medea, does not mean that they’re going to break up.”

 

Piper set her jaw mutinously. “All right, that’s enough. Now tell me what Chiara said about Nico.”

 

Aidan waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, you know Chiara. Will broke up with her, so now she’s going around saying he’s fucking Nico. I mean, it _would_ be really cute, with the whole Light and Night thing they have going, but we’ve already checked with Damian from Nemesis. He’s in the infirmary with the so-called lovebirds. He says it’s just a revenge thing.”

 

“Yeah, by the way,” Mitchell interceded. “Isn’t there totally something going on with him and Chiara anyway? I heard Frieda from Hypnos say – he dropped his voice, kneeling next to the bed, and Piper found herself leaning forwards in spite of herself – they’re having pretty _hot_ dreams about each other.”

 

“Ooh,” hummed Drew, flipping through the book. “Ms Lucky and Mr Karma. Now we’re talking.”

 

 

 

At the time, Piper had brushed the rumor about Nico into the back of her mind. Her siblings’ insinuations about Hera had wholly occupied her, but now that she saw the two boys together, the thought returned. And when she peeked at them from behind the Hebe cabin, standing at the door to Hades, her suspicions grew. Will seemed unwilling to leave, starting and stopping several times. Finally, he raised a hand to Nico’s face, brushing his knuckles against his cheek, and headed off back towards the infirmary. Nico leaned on the door and stared after him.

 

 

 

**Nico**

 

 

“And by the way, I’m off duty this afternoon, so I’ll be at the shooting range, then back in the infirmary tonight. So if you feel sick or nauseous or like you’re about to pass out, _come find me_.”

 

Nico rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the butterflies making themselves at home in his chest.

 

“Yeah, yeah, Will, relax.” He stomped up the steps to the porch of the Hades cabin, and when he turned, Will was _right there_ , like, _right_ in his face.

 

The son of Apollo smiled guiltily. “Yeah, sorry. I just worry.” He moved forwards, making Nico take a step back.

 

“But, just to make sure, promise me?”

 

Caged against the door, Nico blushed when the healer winked, then nodded. Will smiled his thousand-watt smile again.

 

“Great!” He leaned forwards, slowly raising his hand, and Nico felt like he was burning up when long fingers brushed along his jaw.

 

“Good to see some color there,” Will murmured, before turning and bounding off, leaving Nico to stare after him.

 

A couple of minutes later, he shook himself, and went into the Hades Cabin. Compared to the brightness of the outside and the infirmary, the dark came as a shock. The first thing he did, almost instinctively, was rip down the blackout curtains. It wasn’t like he managed to get to sleep before it was dark out anyway, he reasoned, knowing full well that he was probably going to be getting most of his rest from short naps during the day, bathed in sunlight.

 

The sheets on the beds were the next to go. Most of them were so dusty from lack of use, he had to cough when he bundled them up. Likely they hadn’t been moved since the first time the beds had been made. He worked his way through the cabin systematically, opening the windows and brushing dust off the dressers with the already dirty sheets. The torches of Greek fire needed to go, he decided, they reminded him too much of the Pit. Good old lamps would do. They were also less likely to blow up. The bathroom was a nice surprise. It looked like Hazel had used it before leaving, and she had done a cursory cleaning of the shower, toilet and sink. To his pleasure he noted there was a bathtub as well, not as large as the ones in the infirmary, but encrusted with precious gems instead. Quickly ripping up one of the sheets for rags, he set about giving it a thorough scrub.

 

While he cleaned, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander. Back to the infirmary. Where Will was probably still working, leaning over patients, changing bandages, putting away the fresh stock of ambrosia that Hermes had finally dropped off. Even when the son of Apollo was forbidden from using his powers, he was hanging around the place, helping out, gently guiding his siblings, soothing patients. The way he’d soothed Nico, holding him, petting his hair, confessing undying love to him. Nico found himself tentatively smiling as he scrubbed.

 

Once he’d finished with that, he gave it a longing look as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Later, he promised himself. First, he had to turn his ire on the idiotic coffin beds. He wasn’t dead yet.

 

The metal hinges showed little resistance when he hacked at them with his sword, but when he tried to lift one of the coffin lids from where it had fallen, he almost broke his back, and had to drop it, cursing.

 

A tentative knock sounded from the door.

 

“Need a hand?”

 

Piper was looking around the door he’d left ajar. Her hair was perfectly done up with feathers, and her face was flawless as usual. Nico’s gut tightened, part jealousy and part intimidation. Piper was beautiful. She was everything a guy could want. Should want.

 

“It’s fine,” he huffed, turning back to the coffin lid.

 

But since it wasn’t like anyone ever listened to him, he heard footsteps as he struggled, until she picked up the other end of the lid. Grunting out a grudging thanks, he started manoeuvering them out the door.

 

“We dumping it with the dry wood for the fire?” she asked tentatively. Nico grunted again.

 

“Right,” she tailed off. “Should make good firewood.”

 

Her tone made Nico feel bad all over again. Piper was probably one of the nicest, most popular people in camp. If he couldn’t even get along with her, how long till he started training alone, spending Capture-the-Flag in his cabin, hanging on the edges of the campfire, forgotten?

 

But he had Will, he reminded himself. Will, who had saved his life and confessed undying love to him. Will wouldn’t ignore him. Would he?

 

“Look, Nico,...”

 

Nico abruptly dropped the lid of the coffin next to the stack of wood, making an unnecessarily loud crash that had a nearby dryad scowl at him.

 

“It’s okay, ” he told her. “Thanks for the help.”

 

Piper reached out for him when he strode past, and he instinctively flinched back. He sighed.

 

“Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here, but...”

 

“I’m here to apologize,” she interrupted.

 

“Oh.”

 

“And also to get to know you better,” the daughter of Aphrodite rushed on. “I mean, Jason really likes you, and I do want to be friends. I know I’ve sort of ignored you, or gone about helping you completely wrong, but let me make it up to you. Please?”

 

She smiled at him apologetically, and for a moment, Nico let himself bask in the thought of a future where he wasn’t a feared outcast, but one of the popular kids, someone people looked up to, with friends...with a boyfriend even. A future, life had taught him again and again, that could never be more than wishful thinking.

 

He hesitated.

 

“Help me with the other coffin lids?” he asked tentatively.

 

 

 

“So tell me about Will.”

 

They were sitting on the floor of the Hades cabin, using the remains of the old sheets to polish off the gems and skulls of the shrine. Piper was surprisingly easy to talk to, once she’d told him about her rebellious days. It helped to see the stunning daughter of Aphrodite in a light that wasn’t so pure. It made her seem more human. They’d both been pushed away by people they loved, and had done dumb shit with their powers in a futile attempt to get them back. It struck a chord with Nico.

 

Though apparently, they’d now moved on to other topics.

 

“What about him?” Nico was finding it increasingly hard to control his blushing, when had that started?

 

Piper rolled her eyes, nudging him with her elbow so he almost dropped the ruby he was polishing.

 

“Come on. I saw the two of you walk over here. He looked like leaving you was causing him physical pain.”

 

Nico shrugged, putting the stone back on the shrine and picking up a skull. Guy in his thirties, died in 1902 on a bet he could swallow a live fish.

 

“He’s just worried I’m going to kill myself stupidly.”

 

Piper shook her head, placing a femur carefully back on the altar and picking up a crystal.

 

“Will worries everyone is going to kill themselves stupidly. There’s something else going on, isn’t there,” she wheedled. “Come on, you can tell me.”

 

Nico shook his head, smiling as he took the skull of an old lady who’d lived on a nearby farm. It didn’t feel like he was being charmspoken, but nevertheless, he had the urge to spill. It would be nice to share with someone, and it wasn’t like he had many options. Hazel would probably faint, Reyna or Jason would storm over to the infirmary to threaten Will, like Nico was some weak little flower that couldn’t take care of himself. Percy would...Nico stopped his thought process there. He’d spent too much time wondering what Percy would think, or do. It was a habit he needed to break, especially if he wanted this...thing with Will to work out.

 

“I _promise_ I won’t tell anyone. Seriously. Swear on the Styx.”

 

Outside, thunder rumbled, and Nico looked at the daughter of Aphrodite disbelievingly. “Did you just take one of the Underworld’s most solemn oaths for some _gossip_?”

 

She shrugged, smiling down at the crystal. “Maybe. I’ve learned recently that gossip is a more serious matter than I thought. In fact, not to scare you off, or anything, but there was already a little of it swirling around the Aphrodite cabin about you and Will. ”

 

Nico paled, and Piper rushed on, clearly trying to pacify him.

 

“Not that anyone believed it, of course, the source was pretty unreliable. But even if they did, Nico.” She put a soothing hand on his knee, and he forced himself not to flinch. “It’s okay. Nobody minds. In fact, they think you would make a really cute couple.”

 

Nico forced himself to breathe.

 

“Really?”

 

Piper nodded, moving her hand to rub his shoulder.

 

“Yeah. Aidan is really into the whole “Opposites attract” theme right now.”

 

“So...they don’t think I’d just...tear him down?”

 

The daughter of Aphrodite stared at him for a second, before suddenly pulling him into her arms. Nico tensed at first, but once he got used to it, he started melting into her embrace.

 

“Nico, no. You could never tear anyone down. The very fact that you worry shows that.”

 

Nico blinked away tears. “He said he was in love with me. That he’d been for years. If I’d just seen that, instead of _stupidly_ chasing after Percy, maybe I wouldn’t be so...so _messed up_ right now.”

 

Piper held him more tightly as he sobbed onto her shoulder, rocking him gently. Absently, Nico realized he was up another person who knew about his crush on Percy. Pulling himself together, he leaned away and rubbed at his eyes with the rag he was holding.

 

“So what did you say?”

 

Nico shrugged, cradling the old woman’s skull on his lap. “That I needed some time. And he said he’d wait for me.”

 

Piper smiled, putting down the crystal again. “That’s good. You take all the time you need. And if you ever need someone to talk to – she held up another skull – you know where to come.”

 

 

 

That night, after a healthy dinner that Kayla served him sternly, and that he mostly tipped into the fire when she wasn’t watching, Nico curled up in his newly dusted cabin. Piper had lent him some cotton candy pink sheets and a small lamp that bathed his surroundings in rosy light. He’d been laying on his side, staring at it for at least a few hours now, tired, but unable to get to sleep. One time, he even dozed off a bit, but then he was falling, falling into the dark, his heart beating faster and faster and suddenly, as if to protect him, his body jerked awake again before the nightmares could set in. Eventually he sat up, sighing. He was about to resign himself to a sleepless night, when a thought struck his groggy mind. Still not quite lucid, he slipped off his bed and to the door. The air was cool out, and he could hear the distant shriek of the harpies over by the Poseidon cabin. Quickly and silently, he moved across the green and up to the still shining infirmary.

 

When he reached the door, he hesitated, but a much closer shriek pushed him into entering to seek shelter.

 

“Nico?”

 

Will was there, just like he’d said, dozing off on one of the many unoccupied beds. His eyes widened when he saw the son of Hades, and Nico suddenly realized he was in nothing but a T-shirt and a pair of boxers (he really needed to go shopping once he could shadow travel again). He was about to apologize and slip back out, when Will wordlessly held out an arm to him. Gratefully accepting the invitation before he could lose his nerve, Nico crossed the room and slid into the healer’s embrace.

 

“Nightmares?”

 

He nodded, yawning, and Will squeezed him tight.

 

“Gods, you’re freezing.”

 

Nico made a discontented sound when Will shuffled them around until the blankets were tucked around him, but then he could safely burrow into the other boy’s warm chest and finally find sleep.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a riddle: How do you transform a character from a kleptomaniac rich brat into an ass-kicking barbie without too much character development? You let your readers run their imaginations.
> 
> However, Drew is still a bitch.


	2. Why Rome went Undefeated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out, the Hippocratic oath new doctors swear on today is an updated version. Who knew?  
> Also, loud music is bad for your ears, kids.

 

**Will**

 

Nico woke slowly in the morning, crinkling his nose when the rays of sunlight creeping across the infirmary finally reached him. It was so adorable, Will had to resist the urge to lean down and kiss it. Give him time, he reminded himself. It wasn’t cool to take advantage of traumatized people.

 

The infirmary had seen a huge drop in patients recently, so it was almost back to normal, apart from the mess. Will would be more than happy to go to his cabin and nap for a week before getting back to the normal cheer of summer camp. It was almost a good thing Nico had come to find him, or he would have fallen asleep on the job. Now, however, his shift was over, but his baby wasn’t awake yet, and he really didn’t want to abandon him all alone with only Austin, who had the next shift and the few patients they had left. But with Chiron, who was doing his daily round, looking sternly at him out of the corner of his eye, the healer knew he needed to head out and catch up on his sleep. Coming to a quick decision, he grabbed a clipboard and clicked his pen, quickly scrawling a message across it. Ripping the paper from the pad, he folded it a couple of times before slipping it into Nico’s limp hand, slowly folding his slim fingers around it. As if alerted to his presence, the son of Hades murmured intelligibly in his sleep and burrowed further under the blanket, taking the note with him. Will smiled and left to get breakfast.

 

After an eventful meal of French toast and bad French accents being tossed at the Aphrodite table, he returned to his cabin to catch up on sleep while Kayla led the rest of their siblings in archery.

 

When he woke up a few hours later, refreshed and eager to go, he showered, dressed and checked the cabin schedule. Hm. Swordplay. Not his best subject, but maybe if he could work on his chest, if Nico ever… Refusing to let his thoughts go down that path, he headed down to the arena, stopping by the dining pavilion, where lunch was clearing up, to grab a sandwich.

 

He met with his siblings as they exited the armory, laden with various training blades that had him wincing at the thought of the amount of damage they could do. Kayla looked pretty happy to see him.

 

“You’re up,” she practically snarled, shoving an iron longsword into his arms before stomping off. Will looked around at the rest of his siblings questioningly.

 

“We… may have taken the shooting competition a bit too far,” one of his brothers, Bobby, admitted. “And you know how Kayla is about winning… after Maria got in that last bullseye… ”

 

Will sighed, rolling his eyes. His siblings seriously needed to learn to chill.

 

“Come on, guys, let’s go. Sword training time.”

 

When they got to the arena, however, the former occupants, the Ares cabin, were still hard at it, dripping in sweat and hacking at each other like their lives depended on it. And at the center of the fray, facing off against three buff fighters at once, was a slim, pale figure clothed in black. Will quickened his pace.

 

“Hey!” he yelled out.

 

 

 

**Nico**

 

Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure how it had happened. One minute he was staring down the whole wheat French toast Kayla had unceremoniously dumped on his plate that morning, pondering the “Love, Will” at the end of the note he’d found in his hand when he’d woken up. The next, his food was being snatched away and chomped on by Clarisse, who’d let herself fall onto the bench opposite him at the Hades table.

 

“So tell me, di Angelo. You know how the Romans fight?”

 

Nico raised an eyebrow. “I… guess? I mean, I wasn’t part of the legion, so I never trained with them, but I’ve watched them, and I learned from some dead Romans, so… ”

 

“Arena. Ten o’clock. Don’t be late.”

 

With that last order, she grabbed another piece of French toast from his plate, mopped up some of the syrup, and swung back to her own table, yelling “Oi, Sherman, that look like discipline to you?” before nailing her younger brother across the back of the neck with the slice. Well. Saved him from having to sacrifice it to his father. Hades generally disliked seeds. Apparently, they reminded him too much of his mother-in-law.

 

 

An hour later, Nico had donned a few pieces of armor, swapped his Stygian iron sword for a plain old iron one, and was standing in the sun, sweating, with ten-odd equally sweaty children of Ares, listening with less than rapt attention as Clarisse strode back and forth in front of them.

 

“So, after the relative unsuccess of Mission Attila, – she raised her hand to the hoof-shaped bruise on her forehead – I returned to the Athena cabin to wring some more information about defeating these new Roman demigods out of those wimps! They gave me a list – she pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her armor and waved it about – of all the other people who managed to defeat a Roman army. Most of them – the daughter of Ares squinted at the list – appear to have been other Romans. Which is why – she pointed her sword at Nico – I have brought someone who knows about Roman fighting to help us train. And the best way to train, is to practice! ATTACK!”

 

At their head counselor’s command, the Ares kids pulled out their weapons and enthusiastically started hacking at anything in sight. Within minutes, everyone was panting and dripping sweat into the clouds of dust around their feet. It took Nico a whole ten minutes to knock Clarisse flat on her back and explain to her at sword point that he did not, in fact, fight _like_ a Roman, just that he knew what it looked like.

 

Eventually though, he managed to get the message across, at which point, with the help of the butts of their swords and Clarisse’s roaring, they started to return order to the fray.

 

Once the dust had settled and Ellis had a tissue stuffed up his left nostril to prevent him from bleeding all over the arena, Nico was finally able to show the Ares warriors some Roman manoeuvers he remembered. To his surprise, he found he enjoyed the experience of teaching. Once he’d handed out a few lumps and bruises, the campers no longer seemed so wary of him, and even started treating him as one of their own. Apparently they liked just about anybody who could hold their own in a fight.

 

It was near the end of the training session that things started to escalate. One of the Ares kids, Nico had trouble remembering his name, nudged his arm and muttered out, smirking.

 

“Look out, pansy ass archers at three o’clock.”

 

As if on cue, an arrow slammed into the ground just shy of the guy’s foot.

 

“It’s actually twelve o’clock, Mark, but don’t worry. It’s not like anyone expects you to be able to count that high.”

 

Kayla looked pissed and spoiling for a fight. The Ares kid looked ready to give it to her.

 

“Come over here and say that to my face, Twinkie,” he snarled, hefting his sword.

 

The daughter of Apollo smirked, pulling out two hunting knives from her belt.

 

“I would, but I don’t want to have to smell that breath again. Had enough of it when you were crying as we pulled your tooth.”

 

The son of Ares growled when Sherman Yang stepped up and pushed his brother back.

 

“Hold it, bro. She’s baiting you.”

 

“What, you don’t think I can take her?”

 

“That’s not what I’m sayin – “

 

“That’s exactly what you’re saying! Ares campers! Sherm doesn’t think we can take the Apollo dwarf!”

 

“Oh, you’ll pay for that,” snarled Kayla.

 

It sort of escalated from there. Campers chose sides. Others fought back. Within a few minutes, the whole thing had degenerated into another all-out brawl. Nico did his best to keep from causing too many serious injuries, resorting to groin kicks and punches to the stomach, remembering how exhausted Will had looked last night. At one point, Kayla and Mark swayed past, locked in a ferocious duel that even the other Ares kids were dodging.

 

It ended as suddenly as it started, with a sharp piercing whistle that had everyone dropping to their knees and clutching at their ears. Nico had barely recovered when a set of large hands yanked him up and started anxiously patting him down.

 

“Are you okay, what the hell were you thinking! You just got out of a day long coma yesterday!” Will fretted as he continued to check the son of Hades for injuries.

 

“No, I’m not okay! My eardrums!”

 

“Hey, Will...” ventured one of the other Apollo kids, who was holding up the clearly broken arm of a daughter of Ares.

 

“Not now. Get her to the infirmary,” Will told him distractedly, running his hands through Nico’s hair. The son of Hades finally shook himself out of his stupor, batting away the healer.

 

“I’m fine Solace, stop it.”

 

“Yeah, let it go, Solace. Di Angelo here can take a little damage.” One of the sons of Ares shoved Nico good-naturedly on the arm. Will’s own arm immediately shot out again and pulled Nico closer.

 

“You idiot,” he snarled, “he has werewolf scratches there.”

 

The son of Ares got right in the healer’s face.

 

“You calling me an idiot, Solace?”

 

“Damn, Yang, I knew you were slow, but am I going to have to say everything twice?”

 

“All right, that’s enough, you two.” Clarisse of all people came to shove them apart, rolling her eyes at Nico, who was looking on bemusedly.

 

“Much as I’d love to pick up this little smack-down where it ended, some of my people need the infirmary. Go help carry the ones with the crushed toes, Yang, you bloody giant.” She shoved her brother at the wounded campers. “And as for you, Solace, pull yourself together. You’re supposed to be a head counselor!”

 

Will hung his head. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I just got carried away.”

 

After a few moments of awkward silence, Nico decided it was probably best to take his leave.

 

“So… I’m just gonna go –“

 

He was abruptly cut off when Will, as if reminded of his presence, bore back down on him. “Oh, no you don’t. I’m giving you another check-up, gods know what those barbarians did to you. And did you even have lunch yet?”

 

Nico figured the best solution would be not to make eye contact. But once again, the healer seemed to interpret his silence perfectly. Nico heard a groan, and before he knew it, the world was tilting, until suddenly he found himself staring down at Will’s (rather attractive, his mind registered for a second) behind. He realized he was being fireman carried out of the arena and through camp towards the infirmary. Immediately, he started pounding the other demigod’s back with his fists, but Will just shifted him on his shoulders so he’d be less likely to fall off.

 

“Hit me all you want, Death boy, I’ve done this with loads of younger siblings. You must be exhausted, even Sybil punches harder than you right now.”

 

When the cabins came into view, Nico’s mind descended into panic. There was no way he was going to let himself be publicly humiliated like this. Reaching out with the arm Will had pulled over his other shoulder, he found that he did in fact have one option.

 

Will stumbled and practically fell when Nico managed to wrap a hand around his throat and started squeezing.

 

“Put. Me. Down.” Nico snarled in his ear. The son of Apollo nodded, eyes watering, and lowered him gently back to the ground.

 

“Gods, what is it with you guys and strangling,” he gasped, massaging his neck.

 

“What do you mean, who else was strangling you?” Nico asked, confused.

 

The healer shook his head. “Never mind. Come on, we still need to get you to the infirmary.”

 

 

 

**Percy**

 

“So tell me, who knows what this is?”

 

Austin pulled a scroll from the shelf of the infirmary office and waved it around. To Percy’s left, the tiny daughter of Apollo started bouncing up and down on her heels, waving her hand in the air. To his right, Piper looked back at him nervously.

 

Austin sighed. “Yes, Sybil?”

 

“A copy of the Hippocratic Oath!”

 

“Correct. And what, basically, does it say?”

 

The son of Apollo looked at the three demigods disbelievingly when the youngest was once again the only one to react.

 

“Sybil?”

 

“Do no harm!” she shouted gleefully.

 

“Correct again.” The son of Apollo tossed the scroll negligently back onto the shelf. “That’s it for the theoretical part. Come on now, time for some practical experience”

 

“Practical experience” turned out to be emptying freshly delivered boxes of medicine and supplies into the cabinets. Not exactly what Percy had been expecting when he’d been scheduled to catch up on his mandatory infirmary training. Meanwhile, Austin had sat down at his desk, where he was fulfilling the extremely important task of reading a magazine about Beyonce and once in a while directing his assistants to the proper shelves.

 

“No, no there. Not there either. Further left. Further, Jackson. Sybil, get off that shelf, I don’t want to have to treat my own staff.”

 

Respite finally came when the infirmary doors burst open, and what looked like half the Ares and Apollo cabins flooded in, leaning on each other and looking generally worse for wear. Near the back of the group, Percy spotted Will supporting Nico.

 

“I told you it was bad to skip meals at this stage,” the healer was scolding. “You’re lucky I caught you, or you would have hit your head when you passed out too.”

 

“I didn’t pass out,” scowled the son of Hades. “It was just a dizzy spell.”

 

Will rolled his eyes, letting go of the other boy. “Fine. Be that way. Hey guys!” he greeted. “Good work on those supply boxes.”

 

Piper smiled sarcastically. “Oh yeah, I’ve learned so much.”

 

Will shrugged. “Those blue ones go in the cabinet to the right.” Percy looked back at the dozens of bottles he’d just aligned on the leftmost shelf.

 

“Austin!”

 

“My bad,” called the son of Apollo from where he was examining one of his siblings with a knot on her head the size of a plum.

 

Just then, Nico stumbled forwards, and Percy automatically reached out to steady him. The son of Hades’s skin was sweaty and feverish, and he practically rested his whole weight on the son of Poseidon’s shoulder. Percy was about to wrap an arm around his waist to pull him up when Will interceded, scowling.

 

“Let me, you’re doing it wrong.”

 

“Oh really? But I thought all that time stacking boxes would have taught me.”

 

The healer turned away, gently lifting the still groggy son of Hades onto a bed and pulling off his shoes. Percy cautiously moved forwards, worried.

 

“What’s wrong with him?”

 

The son of Apollo pressed a hand to Nico’s forehead, other hand snaking down to grab his wrist.

 

“Stupid Ares campers decided to rope him into one of their stupid brawls on an empty stomach. I doubt he’s eaten anything since yesterday.”

 

A surge of protectiveness welled through the son of Poseidon. “How does that even happen, wasn’t anyone paying attention?”

 

Will scowled. “Well, between infirmary shifts and running a cabin, I’m sorry if I thought I could rely on his so-called friends to make sure he was eating.”

 

Percy frowned. Will was generally a pretty laid back guy, and they’d always gotten along well. But lately, it was like the son of Apollo was angry at him.

 

“Will, did I do something to offend you?”

 

“I don’t know Jackson, did you? Or was it maybe something that you didn’t do?” The healer sighed, running a hand through Nico’s hair, trying to pry his mouth open to feed him some nectar. “Look, Percy, I don’t have time for this right now. Just go put the medicine in the right place and try not to break anything else.”

 

Percy was about to ask what, exactly, he had broken, when an arm hooked around his and Piper started pulling him back towards the office.

 

“Let him be, Perce.”

 

 

 

**Will**

Will took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Seriously, it was like whenever he was around Nico, his emotions blew out of control, and he went from swooning romantic to fire-breathing rage monster at the tip of a hat. It wasn’t Percy’s fault Nico hadn’t been eating. If anything, he should have appreciated that the son of Poseidon was staying away from his baby. But Will, it seemed, had needed someone to blame for what was ultimately his own oversight. He should have made Kayla watch Nico eat instead of just dictating his portion size. He should have appointed someone to keep an eye on the son of Hades’s plate. He should have gotten out of infirmary duty and done it himself. Or something.

 

When Nico’s eyes finally fluttered open again, the healer breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Wha...happened?” the son of Hades groaned, looking around. Will tried to make his voice stern, but he just about melted when Nico turned his head and accidentally nuzzled his palm.

 

“You passed out. Again. Remind me, why is it so hard to eat a proper meal?”

 

Nico rolled his eyes, pouting, and Will absolutely did _not_ squeal inside like a ten year old little girl.

 

“Sorry.”

 

Will sighed, and called across the infirmary to his brother, who was nearest the fridge.

 

“Yo, Austin, toss me a pack of those protein gummy bears?”

 

Austin visibly winced, before grabbing a pack and storming over.

 

“Stop yelling,” he hissed. “Half the people here right now have ruptured eardrums because of your stupid whistle.” He shoved the pack of gummy bears into Will’s hand, then stalked off to deal with the blood dripping out of both of Ellis’s nostrils and all over the floor.

 

“Oops,” Will muttered, ripping open the pack and pulling one out. Nico smirked.

 

“All right, open wide,” the healer prodded, holding the gummy bear teasingly to the boy’s lips. Nico’s eyes widened, and he scooted back against the headboard, but Will followed until he was trapped, practically pressing the candy through his lips. “Come on, it’s a pink one. Those are the best!”

 

Nico shook his head, glaring, mouth still clamped shut, until Will grabbed his chin, and pushed his fingers past Nico’s lips. They felt warm and plush around his digits, and he even briefly felt the brush of a soft tongue before he pulled them back out of the way of snapping teeth.

 

Will did his best not to blush as he wiped his hand on his shirt, (though to be honest, blood in his cheeks was probably less embarrassing than blood...elsewhere, at least until he was alone, preferably in bed or in a shower), when his brain suddenly caught up with his senses. He frowned.

 

“Nico?”

 

The son of Hades scowled at him as he reluctantly chewed on the gummy bear.

 

“Why are all your taste buds dead?”

 

His patient swallowed and shrugged. “Side effect of shadow travelling, I guess.”

 

Will frowned. “But can you still taste, like, _anything at all_?”

 

Nico shook his head, looking down, and Will sighed again.

 

“See, when I ask you if everything is all right, this is the sort of thing you’re supposed to mention. It’s an easy enough fix, after all.”

 

Nico looked up, surprised. “Really? But if ambrosia didn’t do anything – “

 

“Well I’m better than ambrosia,” Will interrupted. He quickly glanced around him. “Don’t tell the gods I said that,” he whispered. Nico smiled a bit.

 

“Now, open your mouth, and stick out your tongue.”

 

Nico grimaced, but then gingerly complied, and Will’s mind temporarily short-circuited.

 

“Errm. And now...”

 

Kayla stalked by, tracks of blood running down her ears and arm, and slapped him across the back of the head.

 

“Right. Healing.” Nico cocked his head curiously (adorably) and Will had to hang onto his newly recovered thoughts by a thread. He gently leaned forwards and pressed a hand against the muscle, humming a few low words of healing. A rush of heat flooded his palm, and Nico flinched back, smacking his lips.

 

“Gummy bear?” Will offered, holding out the packet.

 

Nico dug around the packet and pulled out a pink candy, cautiously nibbling on it. His beautiful eyes widened.

 

“Good?” Will smiled.

 

The son of Hades nodded, slowly closing his eyes in ecstasy.

 

“WILL! GET THE HELL OVER HERE, BEFORE I DEAFEN YOU TOO!”

 

The healer looked wildly around the room, to where a very pissed off Kayla and Austin were holding down Ellis, who was now gushing a veritable waterfall of blood from his nostrils. He quickly pressed the packet into Nico’s hands before running over.

 


	3. Cabin thirteen, and wow, did they just get really lucky with the number?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't know, Bram Stoker was the author of "Dracula". Don't read it late at night, it's terrifying.

**Nico**

 

“Nico, we need to talk.”

 

The son of Hades looked up from where he was mopping up egg yolk with a piece of bread under the watchful eyes of Chiron and what felt like half the Apollo cabin. Ironically, Grover, who’d been assigned to make sure he ate after Will had taken the issue up with Chiron (and been flatly refused the role himself), was looking anywhere but at him. Instead he was concentrating on chomping down the silverware, obviously nervous about being at the Hades table. Nico had been debating whether it would be cruel to point out that the delicately crafted fork the satyr was destroying had come directly from the god of the Underworld’s pantry, when he was confronted by a very serious blonde.

 

“I know you don’t like me, considering the whole thing with Percy, but you have to consider this logically. I’m simply the best person for the job.”

 

Nico finished chewing and swallowed. “Is this about me asking Will to help redecorate my cabin?”

 

“Come on, Nico! Do you really want your cabin to come out looking like some sort of cobbled together solarium?”

 

He shrugged uncomfortably. “He offered. And he told me Athena cabin were the ones who chose the coffin furniture.”

 

Annabeth winced. “I’ll admit that wasn’t in best taste. I shouldn’t have let Malcolm do it, he was going through his Bram Stoker phase.”

 

Malcolm’s voice hollered out from the Athena table. “Excuse me, those coffins were authentic reproductions of the ones described in the book!”

 

“Great! We’ll keep it in mind next time we need to trap an authentic reproduction of a vampire!” Austin hollered back from the Apollo table.

 

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Anyway. I’ve made some plans you might want to look at.” She pulled a couple of scrolls from her bag, and unrolled them on the table in front of him, pushing his plate aside.

 

“Um, guys? If you’re done eating, can I go now?” Grover was practically trembling.

 

“Go. It’s fine, I’ve got it.” Will swung himself onto the bench next to Nico, inspecting the content of his plate before pushing it back towards the son of Hades. “You need to finish that.”

 

“But there’s hardly anything left!”

 

“Please, I could fill an entire spoon with egg. Don’t make me force-feed you, angel.”

 

Nico reluctantly pulled the plate back over the complicated looking blueprints and started scraping at it.

 

“So what are we looking at, exactly?”

 

Annabeth leaned forwards eagerly, pointing to one of the charts.

 

“So I was thinking, we could get rid of the coffin furniture and replace it with a design like the Zeus cabin has, only with black instead of white.”

 

Nico blinked. “Wow. That’s your great idea?”

 

The daughter of Athena pulled over another sheet, looking annoyed. “It might also be a good idea to put in a bier, so we can do proper burial rites.”

 

“Well that sounds sanitary,” Will muttered, taking Nico’s plate back to scrape at it himself.

 

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Come on. It’s a good idea.”

 

Will still looked less than impressed. “And where is Nico supposed to sleep while that’s going on? Are you just going to kick him out of his own cabin every time someone dies? And what about if we have another battle? Who gets to choose which corpse goes on the bier?” He put the plate down and hovered the spoonful of egg he’d managed to collect in front of Nico. “See, that’s the problem with you Athena kids. You get so stuck on concepts and ideas, you completely neglect the human side. C’mon, open up, Nico.”

 

Reluctantly, the son of Hades allowed himself to be fed the spoon, briefly relishing the ability to once again taste, before swallowing and chipping in.

 

“I like the idea of the Zeus cabin negative.” Annabeth beamed. “But I want bigger windows. No more Greek fire, it’s an accident waiting to happen, and it reminds me too much of...forget it.” He broke off, but the other demigods at the table seemed to understand. “And no bier. Never mind what Will said about fairness in death, what we’re doing now is just fine for my dad. I’m not sleeping next to a corpse, gods.”

 

The daughter of Athena’s face fell once again. “Fine,” she sighed, gathering up her papers. “I’ll round up some Hephaestus kids for the furniture and windows, and meet you at your cabin after breakfast.”

 

Once she’d left, Nico glanced over at Will, who was sitting with his face propped on his hands, smiling softly at him. He blushed.

 

“You’re still coming, though, right?”

 

Will’s smile grew. “Of course. I already put Austin in charge today. And someone’s got to add a bit of style to those drab Athena blueprints.”

 

There was a cough behind them.

 

“Which is why,” completed Mitchell, flanked by his siblings Lacy, Aidan and Piper, “we’ll be coming too.”

 

 

 

“Oh my gods, I don’t think I can do this,” moaned Aidan.

 

“I know,” wailed Lacy. “It’s nightmarish. But we have to do something.”

 

Annabeth sighed. “People. It’s just Nico’s wardrobe.”

 

“We know!” moaned Mitchell, holding up one of Nico’s T-shirts, which he’d just pulled from a drawer. “It’s tragic. I’ve never seen one this empty, this worn, this mismatched!” He dramatically swept his arm across the admittedly sparsely used dresser. “We have to do something!”

 

“I’m going to petition to move our shopping trip up to tomorrow,” said Lacy, pulling out her phone and starting to tap away. “Drew’s gotten pretty good at charmspeaking through the phone, she can get him an appointment with the mall’s only competent hairdresser.”

 

“And I’ll draw up a more complete itinerary,” chimed in Mitchell, snatching some blueprint paper out of Annabeth’s hands. “If we’re going to do this, we need to do it right.” He paused. “Guys, what about funding?”

 

Aidan waved his hand. “Don’t worry, Piper still feels guilty, we can use some of her pocket money from her superstar dad. But what we really need to take into account is what style we’re going to go with. Now personally, I favor a more modern look, but...”

 

“NO!” The other two children of Aphrodite turned on their brother, and the scene soon descended into vicious bickering, words like “man bun” and “suspenders” being tossed about like insults.

 

Nico inched over to Piper, who was looking on resignedly. “What’s happening?” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

 

The daughter of Aphrodite grimaced. “You may want to back away slowly,” she murmured back ominously. “It looks like the start of of a _makeover_.”

 

 

Thankfully, they were spared a full out catfight by the noisy arrival of Jake Mason and Nyssa Barrera. Both children of Hephaestus were laden down with various construction materials and looks like they were going to build with a vengeance.

 

“Nyssa, Jake, thanks for coming by,” Annabeth greeted them.

 

The elder of the two shrugged.

 

“No problem. The Arts-and-Crafts cabin is almost complete –(“Meaning another two weeks’ delay,” Will muttered to Nico) – so we figured we could take the day off and help out here. You know, keeping busy always helps with grief.”

 

There was a brief moment of silence as a dragon-shaped comet flew through everyone’s mind.

 

“So anyway,” continued Nyssa, hefting up a heavy stone slab. “I finished the bier last night. Where do you want it?”

 

Annabeth glanced guiltily over her shoulder at Nico, who raised an eyebrow at her. “Actually, we’re not doing to do that.”

 

The daughter of Hephaestus rolled her eyes and tossed the slab over her shoulder. A string of curses reached them from the front porch.

 

“Oi, watch it!” yelled Percy, leaping in through the door, holding his foot.

 

“But we were thinking bigger windows,” the daughter of Athena completed, completely ignoring her boyfriend. “And a better lighting system.”

 

The two Hephaestus kids hummed, starting to examine the inside of the cabin.

 

“Should be doable,” judged Jake. “Won’t take more than a morning if we start now.”

 

“Meaning they won’t be done until tonight,” whispered Will.

 

 

**Percy**

 

Once he’d avoided having his foot broken by a slab of rock (Will had checked), the day went by quite smoothly. Sure, there was the occasional hold-up when Nico tried to stop the Aphrodite kids from dousing his entire wardrobe in hair gel and then setting it on fire, or when Jake cut up his leg by accidentally breaking one of the window panes. But overall, things progressed, even when Piper was eventually pulled away over a fight involving two of her sisters, a boy and a bottle of nail polish remover sprayed in someone's eyes that had Percy feeling grateful Tyson was his only sibling. Once she’d gotten over the disappointment of not being able to turn the cabin into a funeral parlor, Annabeth had found a second wind designing the windows so there comfy window seats that looked like the niches for coffins like you saw in cathedrals. A couple of her siblings even dropped by with looms to start weaving black sheets while Nyssa started working on the lighting. By evening, the cabin was completely remodelled, albeit slightly dusty. When the conch horn sounded, most of the workers started drifting out to dinner.

 

Percy stayed behind, standing in front of the small shrine Nico had made for his father. It was something he’d been meaning to do for a while now, but hadn’t felt comfortable doing with the others still around.

 

“You coming?” he heard Will ask behind him.

 

“Just a minute,” Nico answered.

 

“All right, see you at dinner. And I better see you.” Footsteps sounded as the son of Apollo made his way off the porch.

 

Percy almost jumped when Nico came to stand next to him, gazing at the shrine as well.

 

“It’s funny.” he finally said. “I spent years blaming the gods for not caring about their children. For being ungrateful and self-obsessed. I blamed them for all these things that I did myself.”

 

Nico shook his head. “You’re not like them. You’re a hero.” There was a wistfulness in his voice that Percy was starting to wonder he could have ever missed.

 

“I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy who was lucky and who had great friends.”

 

“And that’s what makes you a hero. Saying stuff like that. Face it, Percy. You turned down immortality for us neglected demigods.”

 

Percy sighed. “Well, you know, it would have gotten lonely.” He waved his hand around the cabin. “This place, it’s pretty peaceful, you know. Kind of like some parts of the Underworld.” He glanced over at the son of Hades. “Who’d want to miss out on that?”

 

Nico snorted. “It’s not going to stay peaceful for long if we don’t get a move on. Solace is gonna come charging in to pour dinner down my throat.”

 

Percy smirked. “You’d better get going then.” He gestured to the shrine. “I’ll be there in a bit.”

 

Nico nodded. But instead of turning and heading for the door, he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. Kneeling in front of the shrine, he made room amongst the piles of gems and skulls for a tiny Mythomagic figurine. When he stood, dusting off his hands, he glared, as if daring Percy to make a comment. The son of Poseidon just smiled sadly.

 

“Go on ahead. Will’s probably getting worried.”

 

The son of Hades gave him a last nod.

 

“Close the door when you leave.”

 

 

Once he was alone, Percy knelt down to pray for fallen friends.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, this chapter was ruined for me by the fact that "bier" in German means "beer". I kept picturing them talking about "where do we put the beer".


	4. A Farewell to Malls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I'm a sucker for makeovers and some clothing stores seriously creep me out.

**Nico**

 

Nico wondered just how badly he was going to regret this. The ride to the city had already been a minor disaster – not so much the dracanae attack at the gas station, ten odd demigods took care of those pretty quickly – as the love songs being belted out enthusiastically by half the Aphrodite cabin in a minibus. Not even the voice of Austin, who needed new strings for his cello after a regrettable incident involving an Ares kid with an unstrung bow and not much common sense, could bring harmony to the mix. And of course with Drew riding shotgun, none of the other campers dared to complain. A few glances had chanced his way, but with barely three hours of nightmare-ridden sleep behind him (Will wasn’t on infirmary duty, since it was currently empty, and he didn’t dare sneak into the Apollo cabin), Nico was in no mood to step in for them.

The real test, though, came when Argus pulled into the parking lot and it was time to go. Nico's plan to get out last and stay at the back of the group was foiled instantly when he was grabbed at the elbows by Mitchell and his brother Aidan, and practically frogmarched into the first clothing store. He honestly wasn't sure whether he preferred Lacy's twittering about different kinds of jeans over Drew's snarky comments about the bags under his eyes. At least insults were familiar territory.

Thankfully, the rest of the Aphrodite kids still seemed a bit wary of him. Even Aidan, who the previous day had fearlessly tried to set fire to his clothes, was holding his arm rather gingerly, as if prepared to leap back a couple of steps should Nico prove dangerous to his manicure.

The store itself was creepy. The lack of natural lighting combined with neon, the strong clouds of perfume, and enough fake palm trees to give a satyr indigestion were giving him serious Lotus Hotel flashbacks. He wished he had a pocket watch or something to keep track of time.

The Aphrodite kids, however, seemed completely in their element, breezing through the racks, barely glancing at the tags as they selected items and piled them into the arms of the poor schmuck from Ares who'd lost a bet and been dragged along as an assistant. Vaguely, Nico realized they were working methodically, Lacy going through pants, Drew tops and Aidan accessories, while Mitchell stood by the son of Hades, calling out answers to their questions about measurements and preventing him from escaping. Within twenty minutes, they'd accumulated a sizeable stack of clothes, and Nico was pretty sure Drew had charmspoken the shop assistants into leaving them alone, because by the time Mitchell marched him over to the dressing rooms, they definitely had more than the allowed amount of items with them.

 

It started the moment Lacy and Drew draped a complete outfit over his arms and shoved him into a booth. The second it slammed shut on him, he started feeling it. Tight. Dark. Constricted. Not the clothes they'd chosen for him, but the cabin itself. Sinking to his knees, Nico squeezed his eyes shut. No, no, no. He couldn't afford to do this. Not now, with all these people around. He wasn't in the jar, he wasn't in the jar,... He could feel sweat run down his back, the taste of pomegranates in his mouth and the choking feeling of no air, no room, no way out...

 

Bright light flooded him as indignant shouts sounded, before warm hands encircled his, gently pulling him to his feet and leading him out.

"Will?" he mumbled, gasping for breath as fresh air and sunlight hit him.

"Sorry, but no."

Flushing, Nico forced his eyes open to meet Austin's sardonic smile. "But he'll be happy to hear you wished it was him. Might even prevent him from burning down the Aphrodite cabin, they are not his favorite people right now."

Nico looked around, taking in their surroundings. They were back in the atrium of the mall, a bright open space with a glass roof and a fountain in the middle. Behind them, he could see Lacy peering worriedly at him from behind a rack of jackets in the clothing store from hell.

"What happened?" he asked the son of Apollo, shaking his head to clear the buzzing.

Austin shrugged. "Your heart rate was going crazy and you were all curled up, so probably a panic attack, triggered by claustrophobia or something."

Nico nodded to himself.

"Right. Thanks for… " He trailed off uncertainly.

"No problem." The son of Apollo shrugged. "Will asked me to keep an eye on you, anyway. Hey, you want to come get the cello strings with me? The Aphrodite kids can finish clothes shopping without you, it's not like they're going to ask for your opinion anyway."

Nico rubbed his arms, looking back at the store. On the one hand, who knew what kind of outfit they would put together for him and then insist he wear? On the other,... yeah, no, he was not going back in there.

"Sure. Lead the way."

 

Austin was not bad company, not by Nico's standards anyway. Sure, there were a lot of awkward silences – at first. That ended quite abruptly when Nico let drop that he didn't know much about music that wasn't from before the forties. After that, conversation was free-flowing, at least from Austin. Although the son of Hades still had no clue what a rap was, or what music had to do with a wooden stock, at least he could get away with just various hums and nods, or sucking on the straw to the soda the son of Apollo had gotten him, “to replenish his glycogen reserves,” or whatever. By this time, they had reached a store full of instruments and books of sheet music, and the clerk appeared much more impressed by the monologue than he did. He even managed to slip away as the two embarked on a lengthy debate over the merits of different types of cello strings.

The store was peaceful, relatively empty and quiet, with soft music playing in the background. After thumbing through a couple of books, he eventually chanced upon a piano. He glanced around. The only other people in the store, Austin and the clerk, who looked busy writing something on his arm, were all the way at the other end of the shop. Hesitantly, Nico turned back and, without quite knowing why, sat down and raised his hands to the keyboard. Almost automatically, his fingers took their place on the ivory keys, and before he knew it, he was pressing down, playing. The tune was simple, like something a child might play, but it flowed out of him like water, naturally. Enthralled, he started playing faster, his fingers pressing down with more confidence, until suddenly, the music ran out. He froze on the final position, heart beating fast and a smile playing at his lips. This was… amazing. It was clearly something he must have learned in his old life, perhaps with his mother. Gazing down hard at the keys, he tried to think, to remember. But all he could recall was… blank. A feeling, the brush of cloth, the click of pearls. Nothing. He was about to bang his fists on the keyboard in frustration, when the sound of clapping startled him, causing him to jump and plunk several keys discordantly. Looking around, he saw it was the clerk, beaming as she clapped, while Austin stood beside her, a wide grin on his face and his smartphone in his hands, held up in a way Nico knew was used to produce film.

"Austin," he snarled. "Delete that."

The son of Apollo shook his head. "No way. I had no idea you played the piano. I've already posted it on the Apollo cabin group chat, we're always looking for new orchestra members. So is this like a hobby of yours or what?"

Nico turned away, scowling. "Nope. Haven't played since I was a kid."

"Oh." Austin suddenly looked wary. "Sorry about that, I guess."

The clerk looked between them, clearly confused. "So, you guys aren't like, in the same band, or something?"

Austin looked relieved, pouncing on the change of subject.

"Nah, he's just my brother's soon-to-be boyfriend."

"Austin!" Nico wasn't sure whether he wanted to melt into the shadows, or murder the son of Apollo and then melt into the shadows. He didn't get the chance to do either, however.

"Nico di Angelo, you get over here right now! I did NOT spent fifteen minutes charmspeaking over the phone to get you this appointment with a hairdresser who actually knows what she's doing, just so you can have a panic attack and sneak off!"

Nico di Angelo feared few things. But even he knew better than to take on Drew Tanaka in a makeover frenzy.

 

**Will**

 

"Oh my gods, look at him! Isn't he amazing?"

Lou Ellen looked a little bit annoyed at having a screen shoved two centimeters from her nose while she was reading, but come on. Nico di Angelo, the bravest, fiercest, cutest kid in the western hemisphere, also played the piano? Will was seriously going to leave an offering to Aphrodite at lunch. That was, if he managed to make it there without spontaneously combusting out of sheer adoration.

The daughter of Hecate sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes Will, I see. Your crush is playing "Twinkle twinkle little star". How sexy. I don't know how you're going to resist jumping his bones any longer."

Will flicked her nose. "Excuse-me, he is amazing. And were you actually trying to make a pun, or was that happenstance? I don't know which worries me most."

"How bout you worry about what Jackson is feeding Billie." She tilted her head towards the front of the infirmary, where Percy was indeed pouring something from a blue bottle into the daughter of Demeter's palm. Will paled.

"Noo, no no no, Billy, don't eat tha...Wait a second."

He turned back to the daughter of Hecate, who was humming contentedly where she was flopped on her stomach on one of the empty bed.

"Did you just use the Mist to make me think Percy was going to poison someone?"

A head with tousled black hair stuck out of the bathroom. "What did I do?"

Will shook his head exasperatedly. "Nothing, Percy. Get back to cleaning."

The son of Poseidon looked suspiciously at him. "I thought you said you had important and complicated medical procedures to go over."

There was a shriek and a splash sounding behind him, before Piper yelled out. "Percy! What happened to keeping the water pressure steady?"

The son of Poseidon made an oh shape with his mouth. "Never mind. I'll get back to work now."

Will sighed and flopped back down on the bed next to Lou's. The infirmary was back to being pretty empty, at least until the next game of Capture-the-Flag, or apocalypse. Whichever came first. Lou was busy reading a book she'd "confiscated" from the son of Hecate who'd attacked Nico, and Will was using the opportunity to scrub down the bathroom. Or rather, have his (least) favorite assistants do it.

"So tell me," Lou said absently, flicking a page to her book. "How are things with your little angel of death?"

Will sighed again and stretched. They'd been friends long enough that he wasn't even offended when she didn't as much as glance at the thin strip of tan skin revealed where his shirt had ridden up.

"Things are..." He pondered the correct word. "Good. Solid. Sort of."

Lou Ellen hummed.

"After those asini attacked him, when I healed him and he woke up, I just told him."

The daughter of Hecate paused in her reading, sitting up. "You what? How did he respond, what did he say?"

Will sighed. "I mean, he'd only been back for like four days, after spending years on the run, and he's not really used to being open to people in general, and about his sexuality in particular, so it's pretty understandable, really, but..."

"Cut the crap, Sunspot, what did he say to you?"

Will pouted. "That he needed time."

His friend reached over and patted him on the back.

"Aw, that sucks, I'm so sorry, Will."

"But that when he was ready, he'd let me know and we could give it a try."

"Oh, so that's pretty good..."

"And then we cuddled till I had to release him from the infirmary."

"Will Solace, you complete asine!"

Suddenly, he was being attacked by a short girl with a heavy book.

"I really thought he dumped you! Even though you're practically together."

"Well – seriously Lou, stop, I need that arm for archery – not really."

"He basically said he wants to date you." Thankfully, the daughter of Hecate stopped hitting him with her spell book.

"Seriously, though, Will. Is this for real? You're going to wait for him?"

The son of Apollo frowned. "Of course. He's like, the love of my life, who would I be to refuse that?"

Lou Ellen grimaced. "Well, the guy who dumped a literal child of Luck after three weeks? Or Connor, what about him? Have you ever had a relationship last more than a month?"

Will pouted again. "This is pretty funny coming from a girl who can't be bothered to ask anyone out to the point of creating Mist impressions of them instead."

Lou looked ready to hit him again. "You promised never to speak of that incident again," she hissed.

Will smiled softly. "Relax. This is different, I can feel it. I really love him. I'll wait forever if I have to."

Lou Ellen cooed. Will smirked. "And don't worry. Your secret relationship with Cecil's Mist double is safe with me."

He tore off down the room being chased by a short angry girl trying to beat him with a textbook.

 

**Austin**

 

Will was so going to pay for this, Austin thought through the haze of boredom. Bad enough he'd had to share a minibus ride with a bunch of pretty faces who only thought they could sing. But now he'd been dragged away from a perfectly cute musically inclined shopkeeper who, thanks to his height, thought he was at least her age, to sit for hours on end in a hair salon of all places. Not exactly what he'd signed up for when Will had talked him into taking on this little job. He sighed. Oh well. At least that cute chick had finished scrawling her number on his arm once he'd assured her Drew was definitely not his girlfriend.

Nico looked relaxed. It had taken him several hours, but the hairdresser's ministrations had finally borne fruit. Now he was sitting in front of a mirror, covered by a black apron thing, nodding off while the hairdresser snipped away at his head. The kid seriously looked like he needed some sleep.

 

To be honest, Austin had never really understood his big brother's obsession with the son of Hades. Sure, once you got past the creepy stare and skeleton-thin build, he was quite pretty, all big dark eyes and aristocratic features. But seriously, the guy had two speeds: angry, and creepy. Austin wasn't even sure which was worse.

It was only once Will had cornered his little angel in the infirmary that Austin had started to see past that. Watching the kid sleep, alternatively curled up like a cute little kitten or whimpering quietly in the throes of a nightmare, the son of Apollo had come to realize that their patient's last name might not be so ironic after all.

Of course he'd kept all these observations to himself. Will had practically flown off the handle at the mere thought of Jason, a guy in a happy relationship with the hottest girl in camp, approaching his baby. Austin didn't even want to imagine his reaction to the idea that his own, single, hot and charming brother might be a threat.

Nevertheless, he'd barely resisted when Will, stuck on infirmary duty the day of the shopping trip, had bribed him into accompanying the mall joggers in his stead. He could get his fill of angelic eye candy without his brother breathing down his neck, and got a free spool of cello strings out of it to boot. (He'd negotiated that at least from his brother, he didn't want to seem too suspicious.)

That had been his thought process that morning. However, the day had turned out quite differently than expected. Instead of getting treated to a fashion show featuring those hot scars, he'd instead had to put an end to it before it even started when the poor kid got a panic attack in the dressing rooms. He had nearly, tragically, lost a cute girl's phone number to the son of Hades's admittedly pretty good piano playing (thank the gods for the gay card). And now he was being stared down by an irritated Drew Tanaka, who seemed to take issue with the idea that her makeover project needed a chaperone. And also might have heard his hasty comments to music store girl about how she definitely was not his girlfriend.

In the end, it took them another hour of glaredown to finish. Austin had been about to put on his headphones when the hairdresser had switched on the dryer, causing the son of Hades, suddenly wide awake, to jump out of the chair and kick it into her legs, taking on a fighting stance. That had brought on a calming explanation of what a hair dryer was and why it looked like that from Austin and some Mist manipulation by the former head of Aphrodite. Jeez. The things you didn't realize had changed since the thirties.

Another welcome distraction came periodically in the form of various Aphrodite kids swinging in and out and around the revolving doors, dropping off bag after bag of clothes. After a bit, Lacy stayed behind as well to sort the items according to cabin (apparently, they'd had a lot of requests after the destruction of the war) and shamelessly flirt until the son of Apollo accidentally smeared the phone number on his arm.

He made a mental note to drop by the music store again some other time, when he wasn't surrounded by vindictive daughters of Love.

It was a good thing Will wasn't there when the hairdresser finally finished with Nico, who'd spent the last hour tense and uncomfortable, something about blow dryers reminding him of Eros. It gave Austin a chance to recompose his expression. Because seriously. He looked hot.

The haircut itself was pretty simple, a sort of 1930s, Clark Gable meets Fred Astaire undercut, which he could tell would last all of a few minutes until Nico decided to run his hands through it. The thought jolted Austin into action, and he quickly snapped a photo on his phone for Will. With his hair pulled away from his face, the son of Hades's features were put on display, big eyes over sharp cheekbones, an aquiline nose and a pointed chin. His brother was going to have a hard time keeping his hands to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have guessed, "asini" means asses (donkeys) in latin, which is the language of medical terminology.
> 
> Since Nico is the grandson of an ambassador, I always imagined he was upper class, and probably learned how to play an instrument. Also, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is one of the most "borrowed" melodies ever, and has a version in almost every language (and isn't even English originally), so it probably existed in 1930s Italy.
> 
> And Apollo kids are full of it, just like their dad.
> 
> And hair dryers were actually invented in 1890, but became mostly handheld by 1915, with "helmet" hair dryers like hairdressers use only being reintroduced in the fifties. Thanks, Wikipedia.


	5. R, like Rival and R-Rating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original series may have had to keep Dionysus PG for its audience's sake, but I have no such issues. Meet the son of the god of wild parties, orgies and in general way too much alcohol.
> 
> Warning, I'm not sure what kind of labels that stuff brings with it. Let's go with definitely sexual harassment and probably assault as well for good measure.

 

**Nico**

 

Evening was drawing near. Spirits were high. It was Capture-the-flag night.

 

Nico reluctantly pulled on a couple of pieces of armor – he’d gotten far too used to fighting without it – and a red-plumed helmet.

 

He wasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up with it. He’d come back to his cabin after sword training with the Ares cabin again to find the helmet sitting on his bed, along with a note that read: “I O U 1 month w\ dishes”. Since he hated doing doing the dishes – downside to being the only one in his cabin – he’d just shrugged and taken it with him to the game.

 

Which he regretted immediately when Will bounded up to him, and deflated at the sight of it.

 

“Oh,” he said sadly. “Guess she got to you first, huh.”

 

Nico ran his hand over the feather. He didn’t like seeing Will sad.

 

“I guess I could reconsider.”

 

Will shook his head. “Nah, that’s fine,” he said offhandedly. “It’s just a game, right?”

 

Nico grimaced. “Right.”

 

Just then, an arm draped itself over Nico’s shoulders, and he almost severed it from the owner’s body.

 

“Woah, relax,” Jason said, raising his hands in the air.

 

“Trying to steal away one of our teammates, Solace?” Annabeth came up on Will’s side. “No way I’m letting you, this one’s kind of vital to our strategy.” She reached over and rubbed Nico’s head affectionately. He shrugged her off, annoyed. Ever since he’d gotten his haircut, people kept doing that. He didn’t get it. After the shower and nap he’d taken that afternoon, it was already a mess anyway.

 

Will, meanwhile, was narrowing his eyes at the daughter of Athena.

 

“Strategy? You know he’s not supposed to exert himself too much, right? He’s still recovering. He shouldn’t even be training with Ares yet.” The son of Apollo reached for Nico’s hair, and he had to duck out of the way, almost tripping over a tree root. The sound of weapons and armor being banged together was starting to reach them through the trees. A bang went off, and soon Cecil was tearing past them, a crazy grin on his face and several Ares campers with smoking holes in their pants in hot pursuit. Will sighed.

 

“Infirmary’s sure going to be fun after this.”

 

 

 

Nico didn’t get it. If he was such a vital part of Annabeth’s strategy, why had he been put on watch out in the middle of nowhere? He kicked a rock down the little ravine separating the red territory from the blue, dropping himself onto a tree root. At least Will would be happy. The only danger he faced out here was dying of boredom.

 

Maybe Annabeth wanted him out of the way. Maybe she knew some of the other campers were still uncomfortable around him, and had decided it was best to keep him separated. Maybe this was…

 

“You know, the Demeter kids won’t thank you for what you’re doing to that tree.”

 

Nico looked over. Indeed, the tree whose root he was using as a seat was slowly withering.

 

“Damn it,” he cursed, quickly backing away.

 

The other demigod chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.” He slowly approached the tree and laid his hands on the trunk, closing his eyes. Within a few seconds, the leaves started becoming greener.

 

“Thanks,” said Nico, impressed.

 

“No problem. Almond trees, they can be used to make alcohol, which puts them in dad’s domain.”

 

Nico hesitated. Usually, this was the part where people started backing away slowly. But for some reason, this one didn’t.

 

“Pollux, right?”

 

The other demigod, whom he vaguely recognized from the Dionysus table, nodded serenely.

 

“And you’re Nico, of course. The exalted son of Hades.” The way he smiled, Nico wasn’t quite sure whether he was being mocked or not.

 

“What are you doing out here? Surely there’s no need for two of us to guard this border. It’s not like anyone ever comes here.”

 

The son of Dionysus kept smiling, moving closer. “Yes. It’s perfect, isn’t it.”

 

Nico frowned, resisting the urge to take a few steps back. “What do you mean?”

 

Pollux came ever closer, and Nico finally stumbled back a few steps, only to find himself backed into a tree. The son of Dionysus cocked his head.

 

“You’re beautiful, you know.”

 

Nico froze. No. There was no way he could know. Could he?

 

Pollux laughed, and the sound made Nico shiver. It was so…debauched, bordering on mad.

 

“I know what you’re thinking. But even if the rumors hadn’t made their way around camp yet, you know my dad is one of the patron gods of homosexuality, and desire. I could tell the minute I saw you, all those years ago.”

 

Nico felt frozen in place when the son of Dionysus leaned in and rested a hand on his cheek.

 

“He’s also a god of rebirth, a god of souls,” Pollux breathed, and Nico felt the warm air brush his face, the lingering smell of grapes. “Just like Hades. I understand how it is, Nico.” The older demigod’s other hand came to rest on his waist. “To feel life, so strong all around, and then suddenly gone.” The hand on his cheek slipped down to his throat, until Nico could feel his own pulse against the scorching fingers. “A feeling that will drive men to madness” he whispered, and stepped closer, the length of his body pressing against Nico’s, his hand sliding down, lower, to his hip, pulling them flush, and it was all Nico could do to just pull his head back from the heady torpor he was settling into, forcing himself to turn his head when the son of Dionysus lowered his lips….

 

And then the warm pressure was gone, and the rush of cold air made him gasp. Looking up, he saw two blond figures on the ground. Will was pinning the other demigod down, punching him for all he was worth.

  
“YOU CRAZY PIECE OF SHIT, YOU. STAY. AWAY. FROM. HIM!” he screamed with each blow. Before Nico could react, another two figures ran forwards, grabbing the son of Apollo and trying to pull him off.

 

“Will, stop it!” yelled Lacy. “I told Annabeth this was a terrible idea!” She gave a high-pitched scream when Will violently yanked his arm and she went tumbling into the dirt.

 

“Well maybe if we’d gone through the mud and gotten here sooner,” yelled back Cecil, trying to keep the healer in a headlock. “Come on, Will, this isn’t like you.”

 

“Are you kidding!” yelled back Lacy. “You know he always goes psycho where Nico is concerned! That was the whole key to the plan in the first place!”

 

Finally jerking into action, Nico raced forwards and started helping Cecil.

 

“Will, cut it out,” he strained, trying to pull on one of his arms.

  
“Maybe if you kiss him,” Cecil suggested, but before Nico had time to glare, Lacy ran back and between the three of them, they managed to pull the healer off the bloodied son of Dionysus.

 

“I’m okay, you can let me go,” Will gasped, bending over on his knees. Lacy and Nico glanced at Cecil, who nodded. “He’s telling the truth.” Cautiously, they stepped away, Lacy going over to assess the damage to Pollux’s nose.

 

“You okay?”

 

It took Nico a few seconds to realize the question was directed at him. Will was still gasping for breath, his face red and his gaze unusually strong as he stared at Nico.

 

The son of Hades nodded. “Yeah. Just...”

 

Will shook his head. “The minute I overheard those Aphrodite kids talking about Pollux, I knew I had to get here first. I’m sorry. I should have been faster.”

 

“No, Will, it’s fine.” He laughed weakly. “It was all part of the plan, right? Athena always has a plan. Even when she doesn’t tell you about it.” He sighed, and before he knew it, he was being pulled into a hug. It was a lot different from Pollux. The difference between a boiling pot of water, and a warm bath. Nico felt himself relax immediately, when he heard the sound of a phone camera going off.

 

“Aw, that’s so cute,” squealed Lacy. “I’m so going to get best romantic picture of the year with this.”

 

Blushing, the two boys separated, right up until Pollux, who’d managed to stand, approached them, grinning through his bloody lips. Will’s arm went right back around Nico’s waist, pulling him close protectively.

 

“No hard feelings, right, guys?” the son of Dionysus asked, holding up his hands. “It was just my instructions. Annabeth told me to come here so that when you found out, you’d follow and Apollo’s archers would be left without their leader.”

 

“Well, actually,” coughed Lacy. “You were just supposed to come here, not any of that other stuff.” Will scowled and pulled Nico closer.

 

Pollux shrugged. “Hey, I wanted it to be realistic.” He smirked. “Besides, if you ever get bored of goody-two shoes here, _angel_ , you know who can show you a _really_ good time.”

 

At that, Will snapped, lunging forwards. On reflex, Nico followed, trying to hold him back.

 

Unfortunately for the three of them, by this time, they’d ventured pretty close to the border ravine. It wasn’t a steep fall, and Nico had two other guys to break his fall. But of course said fall had to happen on his scarred shoulder anyway. He barely managed to hold in a scream at the pain that shot up and down his arm, but since half of him was pressed up against Will, it didn’t even matter. The son of Apollo frantically rolled him onto his side.

 

“I felt that, oh gods, Nico, I’m really sorry.” Nico let out a whimper when the healer gently peeled his sleeve up. The gashes had been nearly healed, but now the stitches had split open again, and fresh blood was oozing out.

 

“Guys, you okay?” Lacy and Cecil were leaning over the edge of the ravine.

 

“Nico’s not,” Will called back. “His werewolf stitches split open.”

 

Through the haze of pain, Nico managed to nudge Will and gesture to the son of Dionysus, who was groaning. Apparently, having two people fall on him hadn’t done him any good.

 

“Oh. And Pollux too, I guess.” Shrugging, the son of Apollo stood up, gently lifting Nico. “C’mon. Let’s get you to the infirmary.”

 

 

 

**Annabeth**

 

 

“WHERE IS HE!”

 

Annabeth was in rage. She couldn’t remember the last time one of her strategies had failed so miserably. Her strategies were perfect. This one had been perfect. Down to the last detail. She’d sent the Hermes campers to loot and distract the opposing forces, Jason and Percy to draw out the various minor cabins, Aphrodite to counter Hecate’s mist magic. The only rogue element had been the Apollo archers, but she’d been sure distracting their head counselor by having him accidentally on purpose hear about his crush meeting for a romantic rendez-vous in a far off part of the forest would work.

 

But instead of her flawless march to victory, things had quickly taken a turn for the worse. Jason had been tagged out after accidentally striking Valentina from Aphrodite with lightning while she stood in the creek. Despite Will Solace having been spotted tearing through the forest at a breakneck pace within minutes of phase “Gossip Girl” being set in motion, the Apollo campers appeared organized as ever, swooping in to capture the red flag in the time it took her to reorganize defense, losing them the precious time and troops they needed to ferry the blue flag across, and which, to add insult to injury, turned out to have been a fake mist one all along. And now, when she got back to the infirmary, the blue team’s cries of victory still echoing in her ears, she found out that her decoy, Pollux, had gone rogue and practically sexually assaulted Nico di Angelo. Annabeth needed someone to murder, and she knew exactly who.

 

Which was why she did not in the least appreciate being told to quiet down when she stormed into the infirmary. But Austin remained firm.

 

“LET ME PAST, I’M GOING TO KILL HIM!”

 

“Sure, just as soon as you figure out how to do that in an inside voice.”

 

“THAT PERVERT WILL WISH HIS FATHER HAD TURNED HIM INTO A DOLPHIN!”

 

“That’s right, get it all out before you go in.”

 

“HOW ARE YOU SO CALM ABOUT THIS.”

 

Austin sighed. “Frankly? I calmed down after I saw what Will did to the guy’s face. He’s going to have trouble with some stuff these next few days. You know. Talking. Eating. Breathing. Things like that.”

 

Annabeth deflated. “This is all my fault.”

 

Austin shook his head. “Believe me, if anyone thought that, they won’t after hearing you scream all that stuff. Have you ever thought about a career in Death Metal?”

 

She smiled sadly. “Is Nico okay? Can I see him?”

 

Austin pulled open the door to the infirmary, peeking in.

 

“He looks okay. He’s not throwing up or anything, like I’d be. Talking to Jason. Now Jason’s getting up, and – oh no.”

 

The son of Apollo quickly dashed into the infirmary, and Annabeth grabbed the door, slipping in after him. The son of Apollo had both hands against the son of Jupiter’s chest, trying to push him backwards and away from Pollux’s bed. Jason just kept walking, so Austin’s feet slid backwards on the polished floor.

 

“Jason!” the daughter of Athena called out quietly, beckoning him over. To her relief, when the former praetor saw her, he veered in her direction.

 

“Hey Annabeth, I’m about to go kill that pervert Pollux. You want to help?”

 

Annabeth shook her head. “You’re already in trouble for shocking Valentina, don’t make things worse for yourself. Chiron will punish him.”

 

Jason looked down.

 

“How is she?” the daughter of Athena asked gently.

 

“She’s stable for now,” he whispered back. “But she hasn’t woken up yet. Odds are, even if she does, she won’t be recovered enough to go home in time for school. You know, if she wakes up.”

 

Annabeth rubbed his arm reassuringly. “She’ll wake up. She’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

 

Jason ran a hand through his short hair, sighing. “I hope you’re right,” he told her, looking across the infirmary. Near the back, beyond the chaos of the normal injuries, Piper and a couple of her siblings sat around a still figure on an immaculate set of white sheets.

 

 

“Also, for the record, Annabeth,” whispered Austin. “Kayla leads the Apollo cabin during Capture-the-Flag. Will sucks too much at archery.”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how the Big Three once promised not to have any more children because of how crazy overpowered they were? Here's a taste of that.


	6. Where Charon is done with Demigods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lichtenberg figures, also known as lightning flowers, are the shapes that occur when lightning strikes something. You can look them up, they're pretty.
> 
> CPR is best given by two people, one pumping the person's chest around 30 times, then the other blowing air into their nose twice, and so on.  
> You know. In case you ever need to give someone CPR.

 

**Will**

 

 

It was like the images were carving themselves into his brain. Pollux caging Nico against a tree. Valentina’s bloodless face when Piper had run in, carrying her. One hand against his pale throat. The smell of burnt hair, her neatly plucked eyebrows all but gone. The other hand wandering south. Lichtenberg figures burned across her shoulder. Motionless.

 

Will forced himself to concentrate, chanting under his breath, healing energy pulsing through his hands as he moved methodically over the daughter of Aphrodite’s body. Healing burns. Restoring organs. Kneeling on either side of the bed, Piper and Drew, whose make-up was smeared like war paint, were whispering charmspeak to her. Will was pretty sure he’d be awake for days just from the residue.

 

“Get me a defibrillator ready, she’s going into cardiac arrest!” he yelled at his siblings as her pulse started racing out of control, before coming to a sudden, terrifying stop. While Will and Kayla alternated giving her CPR, the charmspeakers still telling her to stay, to wake up, Austin rushed forwards, Nyssa Barrera hot on his heels holding the case. Flipping the top open, Austin started following the monotone recorded instructions while the daughter of Hephaestus pressed her hands against the mechanism, holding it together, willing the mortal tool not to go haywire around all the Mist. When a telltale whine started up, Will yelled for his youngest sister.

 

“Sybil! Dry her off now!” The girl rushed in with a towel, ducking between tables and people to climb onto Valentina’s bed and cut off her soaked T-shirt and bra, rubbing down her chest to prepare it for the AED.

 

“...29, 30, necklace!” Will prodded, spotting metal when Kayla leaned down to blow twice into their patient’s nose.

 

“It’s stuck!” Sybil cried desperately, fumbling with the lock.

 

“Well, hurry, I need to attach these,” yelled Austin, holding up the pads.

 

Suddenly, the necklace started lifting on its own, like it was being tugged on by a ghost. When Sybil screamed and let go, part of the chain crumpled, and it snapped off, flying across the room and right into Nico’s outstretched hand where he was sitting on the opposite bed. The entire infirmary turned silent.

 

“Huh,” said Austin.

 

“Please place the pads on the patient’s chest,” said the AED’s recording.

 

The Apollo kids snapped back into action. Will quickly pulled his hands back so Austin could place the pads, one right under Valentina’s right collarbone, and the other to the left, over her heart.

 

“All right, everybody back!” Will yelled. “Kayla, Austin, Sybil, sing! Nyssa, _analyse_!”

 

As the children of Apollo linked hands and started chanting a healing hymn, the daughter of Hephaestus lifted a hand to hit the button, and they all waited with baited breath as the machine did its thing.

 

“Please shock the patient,” the recording eventually droned out. Without waiting for approval, Nyssa immediately punched the big red button on the center of the console. Valentina arched off the bed as the shock was delivered. When Will finally reached forwards to touch her neck, he sighed in relief.

 

“We’ve got a pulse, people!”

 

A cheer went round the infirmary, and Will smiled, going back to spreading healing magic through his patient’s battered body. Drew kneeled back down and started charmspeaking again like she was praying. “Wake up, little sister. That’s right. We still have so much shopping to do, don’t we?”

 

“All right, folks, back to work.” Will snapped, repressing the urge to run out and get his wallet for a trip to the mall. “Kayla, I need you to look at Jake, it doesn’t take a medic to see his arm should not be facing that way. Sybil, you and Piper go out to the forest to make a list of any other injuries still coming in. McClean, keep my baby sister safe, you hear me? Austin, start on the smaller injuries. Cuts, concussions, all that.”

 

“Roger. I take it Nico first?”

 

Will glanced across the infirmary, then sighed resignedly. “No. Take a look at Pollux. He hasn’t woken up yet, that’s not a good sign.”

 

Austin gave a low whistle. “Wow. You’re a better man than I would be, bro.”

 

Will shook it off, returning his concentration to Valentina.

 

 

By the time he’d finished, Piper and Sybil had returned, Connor Stoll leaning heavily on the former, still grinning wildly. The healer rubbed an exhausted hand across his face.

 

“He the last?” he asked.

 

“Yep! How’s Valentina?”

 

Will grabbed the son of Hermes’s other arm and helped lower him to a chair.

 

“Stable. We’ll have to see when she wakes up for the rest.” The Aphrodite head counselor nodded and went to sit by her sister.

 

Kneeling down to look at what he had to work with, Will was about to call Austin when a scream sounded out.

 

“WHERE IS THAT PERVERT, I’M GOING TO MURDER HIM!”

 

The healer sighed again. “Austin, could you take care of that?”

 

“Whatever. You sure you want me to stop her?”

 

But he went nevertheless, leaving Will with no choice but to gesture to his youngest sister.

 

“Hey, wanna help me?” She nodded, though she still looked more subdued than he’d ever seen her. It reminded him of the first time he’d seen the infirmary in the rush of action.

 

“Now this here is a simple sprained ankle,” he explained gently, tapping Connor’s foot. The son of Hermes winced and Will glared at him.

 

“Stop being a baby. We’re just going to do a healing hymn, give him some ambrosia and bandages, and send him on his way with some crutches, all right?”

 

Sybil nodded when he smiled at her encouragingly.

 

“Remember the hymn?” he asked, holding out his hands.

 

She smiled shyly back, putting her hands in his, and they slowly started healing.

 

 

 

**Nico**

 

 

He was stuck in the infirmary. Again. What a surprise.

 

Across the room, Valentina Diaz, as Nico had learned her name was, had finally been left to rest, surrounded by a few of her siblings. There were a couple of other casualties lining the room, among them Percy, who had gotten second degree burns while trying to pull the daughter of Aphrodite out of the water, and Cecil, who’d pulled a muscle dragging an unconscious Pollux through the forest and was being a big baby about it. Nico scowled at the thought of the son of Dionysus who’d almost taken advantage of him. Well, technically, Nico hadn’t pushed him away or anything, and he’d been conscious the whole time, unlike when Will had kissed him for the first time, but still. Call him a romantic, but Nico wanted his first kiss (well, conscious one) to be with someone he actually knew. And liked. And was named Will.

 

Whom he hadn’t seen all evening. Kayla had come by at one point to redo his stitches, and Jason had visited him for a bit, but Will appeared to be going out of his way to avoid him. Was he disgusted with Nico now? The thought made Nico sad (see, he was acknowledging his emotions now, like Jason had suggested), and also dirty. He longed for another bath, but with things finally winding down, he didn’t want to be a bother.

 

Sighing, he curled up on his side, trying to mind his stitches.

 

When he woke up from his latest nightmare, it was almost curfew time.

 

“Hey,” whispered Will, taking his hand from Nico’s shoulder. “You okay? It looked like you were having a nightmare.”

 

Nico sat up, pulling his knees to his chest. “Yeah. Thanks. And… thanks for earlier.”

 

Will grimaced. “Yeah. I’m sorry, I wanted to come by sooner, but once Pollux woke up, Chiron demanded to be debriefed. You’ll be pleased to learn he’s going to be doing the stable mucking for the foreseeable future. And the bathroom cleaning. And the dishes.”

 

Nico scowled. “You mean there was no point to that deal I made with the Athena cabin?”

 

Will chuckled. “None at all. Next time I hope you’ll stick with Apollo, though.”

 

Nico shrugged uncertainly. “Sure. I mean, if you still want me.”

 

Will looked up, seeming to sense the underlying meaning to his words. Reaching out a hand, he gently rubbed Nico’s knee.

 

“Always,” he whispered.

 

Suddenly overcome with too many emotions to acknowledge, Nico flung himself at the son of Apollo, wrapping his arms tightly around his neck and tucking his face into his shoulder.

 

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay,” Will whispered, hugging him back. “I’m here, you’re safe. I’m never going to let anyone touch you ever again.”

 

Nico hiccuped and pulled back to drag an arm across his eyes.

 

“Can I have a bath?” he asked in a small voice.

 

Will nodded understandingly, pulling him close again.

 

 

 

**Valentina**

 

 

It was dark and cool. A fan was blowing loudly from one of the corners, buffering the leaves of the fake potted plant in front of it. All around the room, people were sitting, reading papers or just staring into space, waiting.

 

At the front, next to a door, there was a desk with a man, like a secretary, only with a bad spray tan, bleached hair and the worst-looking suit she’d ever seen. Hesitantly, she approached him. When she reached the desk, he glanced up briefly, more briefly than most people who saw her.

 

“No payment, no passage,” he said in a bored voice.

 

“How about some proper fashion advice?” she offered, peeved.

 

The secretary glared up again. Ah, that was better. “You insulting my sense of fashion, missy? I’ll have you know this suit is Italian!”

 

“Sure. Like, you got it from a street vendor or something?”

 

The man slammed his hands down on the desk, making the waiting people jump.

 

“I’ve had it with you obnoxious godlings,” he snarled. “First that fool Percy Jackson. You know Hades gave me a pay cut after I let him through? And not to mention that brat of his own, walking in and out like he owns the place, the little… ”

 

“’Sup, Charon?”

 

The secretary suddenly paled, rushing around the desk.

 

“Meaning no disrespect, Master Nico, I’m sure there’s always an excellent reason for you to go to the Underworld.”

 

Nico di Angelo strolled nonchalantly up to the desk.

 

“Di Angelo, what is this place?” Valentina immediately demanded.

 

The son of Hades looked at her solemnly. “A mistake. Happens sometimes. Odds are you’d have made your way back alone, but I didn’t want to take any chances.”

 

He looked at the secretary. “I’m taking her back.”

 

The man, Charon, smiled coldly. “Now, now, Master Nico. I’m afraid you know the rules. I can’t let someone go just because they’re friends of yours.”

 

“Oh, we’re not friends,” Valentina clarified. “He has absolutely no idea how to use those new clothes we got him, it’s deplorable.”

 

“Besides,” added Nico. “You just said, she doesn’t have payment. I leave her here, she’ll be stuck for _all eternity_ anyway.” He raised an eyebrow at Valentina and she glared back. He smirked and looked back at Charon.

  
“Do you really want her around, commenting on your every new outfit?”

 

The secretary narrowed his eyes.

 

“Fine. Just get out of my sight, you brats.”

 

“No problem,” murmured the son of Hades, gently grasping Valentina’s arm. She felt a cool wind flow over her as everything went black.

 

Then there was pain. She gasped and tried to sit up, clutching at her shoulder. Warm hands grabbed her own, and she felt the distinct sensation of charmspeak flow over her, the words commanding her to _calm down_ and _breathe._

 

Taking a gasping breath, she looked around. She was in an infirmary bed, dressed in one of the horrid yellow gowns and with her chest bandaged. Piper was the one holding her arms, while Drew knelt by her side, charmspeaking. Laying next to her on the bed was Nico di Angelo, gasping for breath as well, while Will Solace flitted between the two of them, alternatively taking their pulses and pushing ambrosia into their mouths.

 

“Val, look at me,” Piper was telling her. She focused on her sister’s calming presence. “You are safe. You are okay. Just relax.”

 

“What happened?” she whispered. “We were at the creek. That idiot Percy Jackson just doused us while trying to destroy Lou Ellen’s mist clones. What happened?”

 

Piper grimaced. “You accidentally got hit by Jason’s lightning. He thought you were a clone because you didn’t start screaming like the others.”

 

Valentina started shaking, and Piper pulled her into a hug. “Because I actually look _good_ when I’m wet,” she whispered, trembling. “I look like a bloody _Disney mermaid_ , why would I be upset?”

 

Piper shook her head, holding her tightly. “ _Guys.”_

 

Valentina let out a shaky laugh. “Right.”

 

She looked around, to where Will was hugging Nico. “But where were we?”

 

Will hesitated, pulling back from the hug. “When Nico came back from his bath, you were going into a coma, and he said your spirit had left your body. He went to get you back.” He directed a brilliant smile at the son of Hades, cradling his face in his hands. “And I am _so_ enlisting you to help out in the infirmary from now on, that was _amazing,_ angel.”

 

Nico blushed, but leaned into Will anyway, and Valentina was totally going to take some credit for helping those two get together.

 

Feeling slightly better after the matchmaking, she pulled back from Piper’s hug and started picking at the bandages.

 

“Oh, sweetie, you shouldn’t… ” Drew started to say.

 

Valentina shook her head firmly. “No. Let me see the damage.”

 

Peeling back the wrappings, she let out a gasp.

 

“Don’t worry, beautiful, I’m sure Will can fix it,” Drew reassured her.

 

“Why would he fix it?” the daughter of Aphrodite beamed. “Look, it’s beautiful.”

 

Stretching out from the entry point over her shoulder, a beautiful lightning flower ran down her shoulder like an intricate tattoo.

 

“It’s like the lightning is trapped on your skin,” Piper whispered in awe. “It’s amazing.”

 

Valentina nodded, her eyes shining as she tucked the bandages back around her shoulder.

 

“You’ll be all right,” beamed Piper. “Get some rest, sweetheart, all right?”

 

Laying back onto her pillow, Valentina blew them a kiss, then reached up to run her hand across her face. However, before she could, her sisters had rushed back and grabbed her hands, slightly nervous expressions on their faces.

 

“One problem at the time, all right sweetie?”

 

“What do you mean, what’s wrong with my face?”

 

Her sisters shot each other a panicked look, then seemed to come to the same conclusion. Leaning down, Piper charmspoke gently into her ear.

 

“Go to sleep.”

 

And she plunged into darkness once more. Distantly, she heard Drew say something about eyebrow makeup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can probably tell, I love emotional Nico almost as much as I love kickass Ghost King Nico.


	7. Iris messages from the Far Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Sup, everyone? The "Will's grandfather is a preacher" idea is from another fic I read once that I can't find anymore, so props to whoever that was.
> 
> Also, I totally imagine the Apollo kids taking advantage of their "helpers".

 

**Nico**

 

The next few days were interesting. Once he’d been released from the infirmary, with strict orders not to damage his stitches again, Nico was promptly enlisted alongside Percy and Piper for a crash course in healing. Only unlike before he’d joined, when the two had reportedly spent most of their time cleaning and sorting out supplies, they were now actually learning something. Percy complained about how unfair it was for about two minutes, until Will smugly explained to him in a not so subtle whisper that, thanks the Athena cabin’s new cameras in the infirmary, they now had footage of all the campers sneaking in to steal condoms. The son of Poseidon had paled and promptly shut up.

 

To his surprise, Nico learned quickly. He already knew how most bones fit together, and he was pretty good at determining what would most likely kill a person (though Julia from Hermes had gotten pretty mad when he’d managed to diagnose her with diabetes and her contraband of sweets had been confiscated). From there it was quite smooth sailing. Especially since Will loved inviting him to the Apollo cabin to show him his medical books, and Nico loved the way the healer’s eyes lit up whenever Nico got an answer right. Sooo he might have spent some extra time reading, to make it happen more often. Although he still had nightmares every night, when he woke up, he now knew what to do. Will even started scheduling times for him to nap in the infirmary (more than once, when it was empty, curled up next to the son of Apollo) and between the added rest and the carefully balanced meals, Nico even was starting to look less like a skeleton himself.

 

The other campers were also starting to warm to him. The Ares kids had mostly accepted him after he’d trained with them and whacked them around a bit. The Aphrodite campers mostly moaned about his mismatched clothes, but had become markedly less skittish around him (and for some reason squealed in delight whenever he and Will interacted in their presence). Malcolm from Athena had at one point given him a speech about how death was a part of life and people should just suck it up. And of course the other Apollo campers were all over him, for the most part.

 

The other cabins were a bit more difficult, especially Demeter, whose mother had a long-standing feud with Hades over Persephone. (Nico would have been glad to give his stepmother back, but thought that might seem even more offensive). But all in all, people didn’t flinch away from him anymore when he treated them, or if they did, hid it the best they could, before Will noticed and “lost” the key to the anesthesia closet again.

 

Will was already talking about giving him an infirmary shift once the summer session ended and most of the other trained volunteers went home for the school year.

 

That was something else that made Nico pretty happy. Will was a year-rounder.

 

 

“Yeah, mom’s a musician, so she moves around a lot with her band,” the son of Apollo told him once he’d worked up the courage to ask. “Nothing big or fancy, just small gigs and festivals, but they’ve got a pretty loyal following.”

 

They were down at the lake together. Will had suggested a walk after the end of their shift together, and Nico had agreed, even though it was like a hundred degrees out.

 

“When I was younger, I’d either go with her a lot, or stay with my grandparents. Problem was, once I figured out I had healing powers, whenever I saw someone get hurt, I wanted to help. And the monsters followed.” He sighed, skipping a rock across the lake. “It was okay for a little while. My grandfather was a preacher, a pretty clear-sighted one, and he always thought I was the child of an angel, or something, and that the monsters were creatures from Hell.”

 

“Well, he wasn’t wrong,” Nico replied.

 

Will smiled fondly. “Yeah. Have you ever seen an old man beat up a dracanae with an umbrella?”

 

He let himself fall onto the dock, dangling his legs over the edge. “Eventually, it got to be pretty dangerous though. And then my mom got pregnant again – not by a god, this time – and dad dropped by to tell us – you know. That he was a god, and that I was a demigod, and that there was this camp, and stuff. I talked it over with mom, and I decided I wanted to come here.”

 

“Do you miss her?” Nico asked, sitting down next to him. The healer shrugged, gazing out at the lake. “We still write every month. Not as often as we used to, but, well. She’s got her life, and I’ve got mine. Her thing with Apollo was just a one night stand, anyway. So I’m happy for her.”

 

Nico frowned. “But you’re still her son.”

 

Will made an offhand gesture. “Well, we grew apart. Considering some of the horror stories you hear around camp, I really can’t complain. I mean, even you.” Will gestured at Nico. “You lost so much, I’m pretty lucky, all things considered.”

 

“Will,” Nico interrupted. “Just because other people have it worse doesn’t mean you can’t feel bad about something.” He looked down at his hands, flexing them. “I’d give anything to have my family back, but in a pinch, I’d settle for you having yours,” he added quietly.

 

Will smiled softly. “Thanks, love. But think about it this way. I have my family here as well. Austin and Kayla would probably kill each other if I wasn’t around to calm things down.”

 

“True,” Nico considered.

 

Will’s smile grew mischievous. “I tell mom about you, you know.”

 

Nico’s head snapped up. “What!”

 

“She says she really wants to meet you.”

 

“Why? What have you been telling her?”

 

“She wrote a song about it, want to hear?”

 

“Solace!”

 

Nico started trying to punch the son of Apollo, who was laughing, right up until the moment he tipped into the lake. Suddenly, Nico was the one laughing.

 

“Oh, you’re so going to pay for that,” Will mock scowled, resurfacing. His blond hair had been plastered all to one side. Nico tried to pull his legs up, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. A pair of tan hands shot out and grabbed him by the ankles.

 

“Nooo!” the son of Hades howled, clawing at the dock, but it was no use. Another tug, and he went tumbling into the lake as well.

 

 

**Reyna**

 

Reyna sighed, letting herself fall face first onto her bed. The treasury was all but empty. The Senate was in uproar over the peace treaty with the Greek. Octavian’s supporters were stirring up trouble every time she turned her back. She wanted to resurrect the little weasel so she could kill him again.

 

There was a knock at the door and the Praetor immediately straightened. She had learned long ago never to show weakness. Walking across to the window she had that looked over the military camp, she cleared her voice, then called “Come in!”

 

The door opened to reveal Hazel Levesque. Objectively speaking, Reyna didn’t know her that well, except that she had served bravely on the quest to the ancient lands and that her reports came in neat and on time. But the overflow of emotions she’d felt from Nico on their travels together had rather endeared the daughter of Pluto to her.

 

“Hey. Bad time?” the centurion asked, her eyes flitting across the room. Too late, Reyna realized her imprint was still visible on the sheets.

 

“Fine,” she said, somewhat sternly, gesturing for the Hazel to come in. “ I received review reports from some of your warriors. You impressed them.” She gave the girl the half-smile she had developed especially for her soldiers, not outright cold, but not overflowing with praise either. “You did as I hoped,” it said. “I expected exactly this of you, and nothing more.”

 

“Thank you, Praetor,” Hazel answered uncertainly. Clearly she was still a little uncomfortable about her new position of power. Reyna added coaching to her list of forty-nine things to do in the next few days, along with framing the current augur for treason and then plotting to install someone who wasn’t Octavian’s pest of a cousin to the post. The family’s often overlooked younger sister, perhaps, the rebel with the piercings. Which reminded her, she still had to figure out what to do with the teacup pig one of the assassins had become. The younger Venus children had become much too attached to it. Sorry, him.

 

“Frank’s been helping me out,” the daughter of Pluto hesitantly confessed. Reyna heaved a sigh of relief, crossing Hazel’s mentoring off the list again. It was a great help not to be alone doing two jobs any more, even if she sometimes forgot about her partner.

 

“Good for the both of you,” Reyna smiled again, wondering whether she should add dating regulations for officers of different rank to her list. She decided the problem could wait.

 

“So what can I help you with, Hazel?” She really needed to figure out a way to get into Apollo’s temple, but the problem was, it was too well guarded.

 

“I was thinking of Iris messaging Nico, see how he’s doing, and I thought you might like to talk to him as well?”

 

Reyna forced her attention away from the temple problem. During their trip with the Athena Parthenos, she’d come to be closer to the son of Hades than even to her own sister.

 

“That sounds like an excellent idea.”

 

 

 

They made the rainbow in the late afternoon sun streaming through the Praetor’s window, using a crystal Hazel had brought, and probably just freshly pulled from the ground. The daughter of Bellona briefly wondered whether it would be insulting to Pluto to ask his daughter to help them replenish their treasury.

 

Nico swam into view just as he was pulled on a shirt, clearly straight out of the shower. The two children from out of time immediately started blushing and stuttering, and Reyna smirked. She’d had her doubts about this type of communication, but she had to admit, the results could be pretty entertaining.

 

“Hey,” she finally interrupted the stuttering. “How are you? You look better.”

 

And indeed, the son of Hades no longer had such pronounced circles under his eyes. He’d gotten a haircut, his clothes fit better (though they were horribly mismatched) and even from the brief glimpse of his stomach she’d gotten, Reyna could tell he no longer looked quite as starved.

 

“Yeah, Will’s been making sure I eat a lot, and take naps and stuff. Will Solace, I mean.” the son of Hades stuttered. Then blushed. Reyna’s internal mother bear raised her nose.

 

“That’s the healer from the infirmary, right?” Hazel appeared blissfully innocent of any suspicion. Then again, the girl had not had a mind meld with her brother. She might not know he was gay. Hell, considering she’d been raised by catholic nuns more than eighty years ago, she might not even know what being gay meant. Reyna added scheduling a mandatory sexual education class for the entire legion to her list.

 

Nico was still blushing. “Yeah, he’s really annoying. But he’s been teaching me a lot about healing too. I mean, Percy and Piper too, it’s not just me and him, it’s his siblings too sometimes… ” The son of Hades sank into a mortified silence.

 

“That’s good.” Reyna smiled, and added conducting a full investigation into the background of this “Will Solace” onto her list. You never knew with these children of Apollo. Perhaps a threatening talk was in order as well. The daughter of Bellona resolved to contact Annabeth. If anyone could scare a horny teenager into behaving as well as Reyna, it was that girl.

 

Hazel, meanwhile, seemed to have caught on that something was out of the ordinary. “Oooh, is there a special _someone_ you want to tell us about?” she teased, and Reyna was about to cross the sex ed class off the list again.

 

“Come on, what’s her name?”

 

Maybe she’d schedule that class anyway.

 

Nico flushed almost purple, and Reyna finally took pity on her friend.

 

“He’ll tell us when he’s ready, Hazel,” she admonished gently, and Nico shot her a thankful look. Behind Hazel’s back, she flashed him an “I see you” sign, and then a “Call me.” He rolled his eyes.

 

“So what’s new at the legion?”

 

 

They ended up talking for more than an hour, bringing each other up to date on various friends and in particular the summer exchange program they would try out next year. Reyna could weather a year of Senate lamenting until they saw for themselves that the Greek were no threat to Camp Jupiter.

 

When the call finally ended, Reyna leaned back against the wall, contemplating.

 

 

“Say, Hazel. You wouldn’t have any problem opening up a tunnel into the cellar of the Apollo Temple, would you?”

 

 

 

**Nico**

 

When the son of Hades finally reemerged from his cabin, he was ambushed.

 

“Hey, Nico.” The son of Dionysus looked around nervously. “You have a minute?”

 

Nico froze. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. He wanted to head down to the Zeus cabin, where he was helping Jason put in place some of the finishing touches on the shrines he was designing for the Acheronic deities. He wanted to go find Will and watch him talk about medical procedures, and reminisce about how good the son of Apollo looked with his soaking wet clothes outlining his chest, as well as… other… parts of him. Hell, in a pinch he’d even settle for letting the Aphrodite kids give him a lecture on how to use the wardrobe they’d gotten him, like they’d been begging to. Not this. Anything but this.

 

“Actually, I kind of have to… ” He was about to point towards one of the other cabins, whichever, and run off, when he saw the look on Pollux’s face.

 

He remembered how it felt to have people run away from you.

 

“Fine,” he sighed. “Just a minute.”

 

“Thanks.” The son of Dionysus wrung his hands, not looking Nico in the eye. “I guess I just wanted a chance to apologize. When Annabeth talked about how we were going to make Will jealous by pretending we were having a romantic meet-up, I kind of got carried away. I mean, at the beginning, I was, like, who would believe that? No offense.”

 

“None taken,” Nico replied dryly.

 

“But then it got me thinking. You are pretty cute.”

 

Nico raised an eyebrow.

 

“It’s a compliment!” insisted the other demigod. “Look, I just really took the whole thing too far. I guess, since my brother died, and it being my last summer here… I’ve been a little out of control, you know? My whole life, Castor was my home. And when he… fell… Camp Half-Blood was still my home. My dad was here, he was extra attentive. Now _he’s_ gone, and I’m leaving… I’ve just been feeling a little… ”

 

“Lost,” Nico completed. “I know the feeling.”

 

“Right. It’s no excuse for what I did, but...I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

 

Nico nodded. “Apology accepted.”

 

Pollux turned to go, then turned back.

 

“But, for the record. You really are beautiful. Will’s a lucky guy.”

 

Nico watched the son of Dionysus turn and head back towards his cabin, a bundle of emotions in his chest.

 

 

“Hey Nico, you okay?”

 

The son of Hades turned to see Percy jogging towards him.

 

“I saw Pollux here. What did he want? He didn’t try anything, did he?” The son of Poseidon turned to scowl at the demigod’s retreating back.

 

Nico shook his head. “Just apologizing.”

 

Percy nodded, visibly relieved. “Good. Say, you wouldn’t know anything about the Potamoi, would you? I don’t want to admit to Jason I have no clue, and Annabeth’s getting tired of covering for me. And I kind of get the feeling it doesn’t have anything to do with potatoes, so… ”

 

“Oh my gods, how did I ever had a crush on you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Potamoi are River gods, by the way. But clueless Percy never gets old.


	8. Party in the USA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: the largest currently known diamond is 342 carats. It's kept in a museum in Russia and is named the " 26th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union". Catchy.
> 
> Also, teenagers are evil.

 

**Kayla**

 

It was the second to last evening of the summer session, the night before the fireworks, and everyone was getting into the mood, letting loose a little now that punishments were becoming basically pointless. The younger campers had been pushed off onto some of the more serious Athena campers, who “didn’t approve of stereotypical teenage rebellion” (nerds) and between the Hebe, Hermes and Dionysus cabins, the older campers had managed to put together some half-decent parties. Tonight, after a fair bit of convincing on Austin and her own part, Will had caved and allowed the event to be held in the Apollo cabin, even offering up the leftover funds from the infirmary as a sort of “well done” to all the volunteers during the aftermath of the war.

 

It was still early, only nine or so, but the party had already reached a comfortable, lived-in feel. The bunks had been pushed to the sides of the room, except for a couple which where being used as couches. The Hephaestus kids had wired up a mad gaming area, with three different screens and half a dozen consoles, which were being used by the Stolls in a new gambling scheme that the Ares kids clearly hadn’t caught on to yet, judging by the amount of cursing and money being handed over. Will’s “head counselor” desk had been cleared of all his paperwork and pulled to the center of the room, piled high with chips, candy and popcorn, courtesy of the Hermes campers, and an enormous bowl of punch that had bought Pollux’s way back into most people’s good graces, with the notable exception of her big brother, who had spent a good five minutes glaring at the entire table before he was distracted by his _angel_ ’s arrival.

 

From that moment on, nothing short of a flaming bronze dragon would have been able to catch Will’s attention, which was good, because Kayla was pretty sure some of the oldest campers were passing around a flask of what most certainly wasn’t kool-aid.

 

But tonight, Kayla had her own worries. Between the battles and the constant threat of attack, her summer had been tragically devoid of any sort of stereotypical summer romance, and tonight was the night to correct that. Brushing back the hair Lacy had spent all afternoon dyeing in exchange for gossip about her brother and the son of Hades (gross, but sacrifices had to be made), and quickly checking her make-up (worth an unconfirmed rumor that Damian had come by the infirmary for condoms, per the Aphrodite cabin’s usual going rate), Kayla cast around the room until her eyes handed on her target.

 

Mark from the Ares cabin wasn’t the brightest bulb in the infirmary closet, and his face lacked the chiseled definition of one dreamy Jason Grace’s. But Kayla needed to be realistic: Jason was currently making out with his hot girlfriend in a corner, and Mark was single, buff and handsome enough to pass for the son of Jupiter. If you squinted. He was also a bit older than her, which make it exciting. And as everyone knew, children of Apollo did tend to mature faster than others.

 

Flashing herself a last smile in her compact mirror which she usually only used for light signals during Capture-the-flag, Kayla snapped it shut and headed for the gaming area, where her target was currently being cheated out of any leftover pocket change by Connor Stoll.

 

“Hey Mark,” she purred, squeezing herself next to him on the bunk.

 

“Argh!” yelled the son of Ares, throwing down the game controller. “I give up.”

 

“Already? Aw, come on, Mark, that all you’ve got?” Travis leaned over the edge of the bunk, grinning devilishly. The eldest son of Hermes was leaving for college, and apparently was making the most of his last few days.

 

Mark scowled. “I swear, if we were meeting in an actual arena, things would be going differently, Stoll.”

 

Connor shrugged. “Maybe. In the meantime, pay up. Unless you’re up for another round?” He grinned provocatively, and Kayla had to step in. No way was she losing a guy to a stupid video game. Valentina was staying the year to recover from her burn injuries. The daughter of Aphrodite would never let her hear the end of it.

 

“Actually,” she put in, smiling flirtily, “I was wondering whether you wanted to come down to the lake with me.”

 

The three boys looked over at her, clearly confused. She internally rolled her eyes and grabbed Mark’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

 

“Oh.” Looking around, the son of Ares grabbed the flask from a passing Clarisse, took a gulp, and shoved it at Connor, who patted him on the back.

 

“All right,” he said, coughing. “Lead the way, pretty lady.” He was clearly trying to make his voice deeper, but Kayla wasn’t complaining. As she pulled him up and towards the door, she heard Travis call out: “All right, who’s next, people?”

 

Before Kayla and Mark could make their escape, a voice floated in the door.

 

“I might give it a try.”

 

To the daughter of Apollo’s horror, Nico di Angelo strolled in, closely followed by her brother, whose eyes immediately zeroed in on her hand in Mark’s.

 

“Where are you going?” he asked suspiciously.

 

“Just out to the lake for some fresh air.” She tried to keep a steady voice, but she could tell she was blushing. Damn Irish genes.

 

Will’s eyes narrowed. “Stay,” he said, pointing at Mark.

 

“But Will –“ Kayla protested.

 

“Nope.” Her brother pushed past her to follow Nico, who’d plunked down on the bunk, where Connor had hurriedly stashed the flask under a pillow.

 

“You sure you want to play that, love?” Will leaned over the back of the bunk, his hand shooting out to grab at Mark’s T-shirt when Kayla tried to pull the son of Ares out the door. “It’s probably a bit more modern than you’re used to.”

 

“Oh, I think I can manage,” Nico replied, examining the controller.

 

“Yeah, Will, live a little.” Connor grinned stupidly, and Kayla internally smacked her forehead. Her brother gave the son of Hermes a look.

 

“You know I can practically smell the vodka on your breath, right?”

 

His ex-boyfriend smiled nervously, then tried to stand.

 

“I should get going.”

 

His brother immediately pushed him down as, from the corner of her eye, Kayla saw the flask threaten to topple off the bunk.

 

“Come on, Con. Don’t you want to give Nico a shot?” his brother prodded. He smiled angelically at the son of Hades. “A little bird told me something about him and diamonds.”

 

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you want to make it interesting.”

 

Travis leaned in closer. “Oh yeah. Say, four hundred carats?”

 

The son of Hades swallowed. “That’s pretty big. Bigger than any currently known diamond in the world.”

 

The son of Hermes nodded.

 

Will leaned down, putting a hand his Nico’s shoulder. “Nico, that sounds dangerous, even for you. You shouldn’t.”

 

The son of Hades leaned in. “And what if I win?”

 

The siblings glanced at each other.

 

“If you win, no more pranks on the Hades and Apollo cabins for a year.”

 

Kayla could see the longing in her brother’s eyes. Last time their cabin had been pranked, the flood had destroyed half of Will’s medical books. Tiles on the roof had been blown off. They’d been picking feathers out of their clothes for _weeks_.

 

Nico glanced back at Will and Kayla knew the Stolls had him hooked. However much he may try to hide it, the son of Hades was just as smitten with her brother as Will was with him.

 

“Deal,” he said firmly.

 

The entire cabin seemed to quiet down, everyone taking a step closer. Even Kayla didn’t want to leave anymore.

 

Connor waggled his eyebrows. “All right. Let’s do this.”

 

 

Nico was surprisingly good. As in, he was excellent. Apparently, all those years in a casino had payed off. All around them, the people who’d been losing money to the Stolls that summer started cheering him on. Nico looked dumbstruck, but also pleased, and with the encouragement seemed to play even better.

 

Of course they should have seen this moment coming, Kayla thought in retrospect. The Stolls loved their pranks more than anything. It was obvious that eventually, they would begin playing dirty.

 

It started innocently enough, with small jokes that seemed to go straight over Nico’s innocent little head, though the people around them started laughing. But even though he obviously didn’t understand them, the son of Hades seemed to sense that something was going on. He stopped smiling and his fingers tensed around the controller.

 

Then things took a turn for the nasty.

 

“So tell me, _angel,_ ” Connor snarked, his fingers flying across the controller as he struggled to keep up. “Have you sucked Will’s dick yet?”

 

Kayla could see Nico’s face and neck redden, though he remained concentrated on the game.

 

“Connor – “warned Will.

 

“Oh, come on, Solace. Everyone knows how much you enjoy sticking it up people’s asses too. Even Chiara says so. So the only question is, how long is our little goth virgin here going to hold out before he either puts out or gets dumped? Bets, anyone? Mine’s on two weeks.”

 

Kayla could see the light from the screen being reflected in Nico’s teary eyes, even though his concentration didn’t break for a second.

 

“Connor, I swear to all the gods!” Will yelled, standing up.

 

But Nico held out one hand to him while slamming down a blurry combination of buttons with the other. The words “YOU LOSE!” flashed across the screen and the son of Hades threw down the controller, hard enough to make the plastic crack, before storming out.

 

The whole cabin gaped at the TV.

 

“I… don’t believe it,” Travis gaped. “He… he won! But the game was rigged, there’s no way he could have won!”

 

Will punched Connor in the side of the head before storming out after Nico.

 

Mark looked around at his siblings.

 

“Rigged, huh?” He smacked a fist into his palm menacingly. Both Stolls turned around and gulped.

 

“GET EM, ARES!”

 

Kayla sighed as her date for the night led a bunch of angry demigods in pursuit of the sons of Hermes, who’d decided the best survival technique currently was running for their lives.

 

 

 

**Will**

 

 

He found Nico in the Hades cabin, curled up on his new bed with his face buried in his knees.

 

“Hey,” he said softly, toeing off his shoes and crawling next to him. “You okay?”

 

Nico shook his head, face still hidden, though his shoulders twitched. Will’s heart twisted and he moved closer, rubbing the boy’s back.

 

“They were lying, you know. I’ve never gone that far with anyone. And I most certainly wouldn’t break up with you for something like that. They just wanted to try to throw you off your game.”

 

Nico angrily wiped at his eyes with his sleeve. “I know that. It’s something else.”

 

Will inched closer, confused.

 

“What’s the matter, then? C’mon, Nico, talk to me.”

 

The son of Hades gave a sigh and relaxed his legs, slumping against the wall.

 

“It’s stupid,” he muttered.

 

Will shook his head.

 

“No way. Whatever it is, I really don’t think it is. Just tell me.”

 

Nico looked at him disbelievingly.

 

“Come on. You trust me, right?” Will coaxed. “I’m the guy who was in love with you before we’d even exchanged two words, remember? I dated _Connor Stoll_ to try and get you out of my head. It doesn’t get any more embarrassing than that.”

 

Nico _almost_ smiled, and ducked his head.

 

“Fine,” he rolled his eyes. “But only because I really don’t want to talk about it with Jason.”

 

Will hummed, and Nico hesitated, before rushing the words out of his mouth.

 

“I really don’t know anything about... _guys_ dating, or what you’ll want to do, and… ’m scared, that I’ll do it wrong, and you’ll hate me, or get bored, and we stop hanging out and I end up alone again, and I just _hate_ feeling so clueless.” he mumbled.

 

Will’s jaw almost dropped, and he also wanted to smack himself on the forehead. Of course. Where would Nico ever learn any of this stuff. His family was dead, and even if they had still been alive, their advice would probably just have been “don’t”. And while there were only twenty million or so movies and books out there about guys and girls dating, gay couples? Not so much.

 

Will swallowed, then opened his mouth. Then closed it again. Because let’s face it, was he _really_ the best person to give his crush the sex talk? Sure, as head of the infirmary and of the Apollo cabin, he’d given it plenty of times, both to his siblings and to whoever wandered in looking for condoms (most notably Damian White last week). But for Nico?

 

Meanwhile, his baby had apparently taken his silence the wrong way, and had curled up in a ball again.

 

“Okay. Okay,” Will finally started with. He grabbed Nico’s arms and pulled them away from his face. “First off, thank you for telling me this. I didn’t realize, which in retrospect was really stupid of me.” Taking Nico’s wrists in one hand, he proceeded to hook an arm under his knees and pull him onto his lap, settling the boy’s arms around his neck.

 

“This is all right, right?” he checked. Nico nodded, though he was still pretty tense. Will started rubbing circles into his back, trying to get his to relax.

 

“See, this is what I want.”

 

Nico looked up, confused.

 

“To talk about things,” Will clarified. “To go on walks, and work in the infirmary together, and laugh, and make jokes, and go on dates, and hold your hand at the movie theater when it gets scary and I’m terrified, but you think it’s weak, and to cuddle, and maybe kiss, and that’s it. Sure, maybe later on, in a few years, when you’re absolutely sure you’re ready, because I want to do this right, maybe we could have sex, and that is a whole other discussion that can wait for another time. Right now,” he laced his fingers with Nico’s. “I just want this. Okay?”

 

Nico nodded again, and tucked his face into Will’s shirt.

 

 

Eventually, after a few minutes of sitting in the dark listening to the Stolls get chased all over camp by an angry horde, Nico sat up, pulling his legs off of Will’s.

 

“Foot’s asleep,” he muttered, and Will chuckled.

 

“So what do you want to do now?”

 

They both seemed to sense the question was about more than just that moment. The silence grew deep, and Will started getting nervous that he’d overplayed his hand. Nico had seemed to respond well to his advances so far, but had he maybe finally pushed too far?

 

Just as he was about to start backtracking, the son of Hades interrupted his wildly spiraling thoughts.

 

“D’you want to go to the fireworks tomorrow?”

 

“What?”

 

Nico blushed. “You mentioned dates, so I thought… Never mind, just forget it.”

 

“No, no, no, I love it!” Will wanted to express his enthusiasm, but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. He ended up doing a ridiculous routine of kneeling and drumming his hands on the mattress before reaching and running his hands up Nico’s arms to cup his face.

 

This was normally where they’d kiss, Will realized. But if tomorrow was the fireworks, maybe that was when Nico wanted to?

 

“I would love to go to the fireworks with you,” he repeated instead, savoring the feeling of warmth running through Nico’s cheeks. They stayed there frozen a little while, until Nico leaned back against the pillow, visibly emboldened.

 

“You want to stay here tonight?” he asked shyly, as the Stolls’ yells started to become more high-pitched. “You probably won’t get too much sleep back at your own cabin.”

 

Will smiled as Connor gave a particularly loud scream, something about “not the feet”.

 

“Sure,” he answered, laying down next to Nico and pulling him closer. “Malcolm’s looking after the younger kids, and since I specifically said there would be no alcohol, no one will need medication for hangovers tomorrow anyway.

 

 

By the time Chiron grumpily dragged himself out with his tail still in curlers to shoot down the Stolls from where they’d been strung up by their feet, the two boys were fast asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Generally speaking, if someone says they're mature, they're not.
> 
> For instance, Will would never say he's mature. He's a good big brother.


	9. The Obligatory Kiss Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, the author of the wonderful fic with Will's kickass grandpa I hadn't been able to find made themselves known. Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for OMGitsgreen and their work "Like Matchsticks". Seriously though. It's great, check it out.

 

**Nico**

 

It was a strange feeling. The first time he’d felt at home somewhere in almost four years, the first people he’d felt almost comfortable with. And tomorrow they would be leaving for their lives again. There was an atmosphere of sadness in the air. How would most of them cope? How could you go back to an ordinary human life after living through a war the rest of the world didn’t even know about? Nico could only wonder.

 

For his part, he was strangely excited, though also nervous. Chiron had been adamant. He’d missed a lot of schoolwork, and catching up would be no picnic, especially if he wanted to continue learning to heal as well. But Will had promised to help him.

 

Nico glanced at the other demigod. When they’d woken up that morning, Will’s hair shining in the sunlight that streamed through the new windows, Nico had almost wanted to cry at how peaceful the moment was, and how fleeting. Eventually, the healer had to leave – the campers who’d been conned by the Stolls the previous evening had not been kind – but he gave Nico a kiss on the cheek, strict orders to get some more sleep and a good breakfast, and a small silver key he carried on a chain around his neck with his beaded necklace. The key to the anesthetics cabinet, to be exact.

 

After spending the afternoon going through his closet and nervously pacing, and with less than an hour to go before the fireworks, Nico had finally admitted defeat, and gone to knock on the door of a certain cabin. No sooner had he uttered the words “help” and “date”, than he’d been swept back into Cabin thirteen.

 

“Yeah, my siblings are pretty serious about you two becoming an official couple,” Piper explained as she watched Mitchell fuss over Nico’s hair while Lacy and Drew argued over an outfit.

 

“Please,” scoffed Drew. “Like you weren’t also swooning over that picture of them hugging.”

 

Piper and Nico both blushed.

 

“Hm, how about that one?” Piper pointed to a black button up shirt, trying to distract her siblings again.

 

“NO!” all three of them screamed in unison.

 

 

With fifteen minutes to go, the Aphrodite crew finally finished. After ten minutes of arguing and three outfit changes, they’d finally settled on simple black jeans “that make your butt look less bony,” Drew noted, eying him in a way that made Nico feel uncomfortable, and the simple orange “Camp Half-Blood” T-shirt that Will had given him when he’d left the infirmary “for the emotional value” Lacy squealed. His hair had been gelled into place too, but as soon as her siblings rushed out to get ready themselves, Piper leaned over and messed it up again.

 

“There you go,” she told him. “I love my siblings, but they do tend to go overboard. Will doesn’t need you all primped up, he loves you the way you are.”

 

Nico nodded, trying to calm his nerves.

 

“Hey, Nico.” The daughter of Aphrodite pushed his shoulder. “We all do. You know that, right?”

 

Nico tried to smile. “Yeah.”

 

“And you can call us any time, even out in California.”

 

“I know. Thanks.”

 

“Hey Nico.”

 

“What.”

 

He was suddenly pulled into a hug.

 

“We are so proud of you. You’ve come so far these past few weeks.”

 

And though he was still uncomfortable with other people touching him (except for Will, obviously), the son of Hades grit his teeth, and hugged back.

 

When there was a knock at the door, they finally broke apart, and Piper brushed a piece of hair out of his face.

 

“Go get him, Tiger,” she smiled.

 

Nico smiled back nervously, and went to open the door.

 

 

 

“Have I already mentioned you look amazing?” Will told him again.

 

Nico mock rolled his eyes.

 

“Yep.”

 

“Oh. Right. just making sure.”

 

Up ahead, the beach opened up to the bay under a perfect, starry sky. Spread here and there were blankets with people sitting on them. Some even had picnic baskets. Nico felt his heart sink.

 

“Oh. Um. I didn’t think to bring a blanket for us,” he stuttered. “I’m sorry, I’ll just go back and – “

 

His arm was grabbed and Will pulled him back, and off to one side of the beach.

 

“Actually,” Will grinned, “that’s good.”

 

They had reached a far-out blanket piled high with pillows and even a fruit basket. A single, bored-looking Kayla sat on the edge, keeping it free for them.

 

“Finally. Thank _you_ ,” she told them, brushing past and snatching the bill Will held out for her.

 

“Stay out of trouble!” Will yelled after her.

 

“Right back at you!” she yelled back.

 

 

Will blushed. “Sorry about that. Pillow?”

 

They settled into a slightly awkward silence, gazing out at the stars and the sea while waiting for the fireworks to start. Nico let his gaze drift over to the other campers, when he spotted a small crowd forming around Chiron.

 

“What’s going on there?”

 

“Oh.” Suddenly Will scrambled up on his knees. “I almost forgot. I got you something.”

 

He felt around amongst the pillow before pulling out a small, square box wrapped in gift paper with tiny skulls on it. When he held it out, Nico took it uncertainly.

 

“For me?”

 

Will nodded, looking nervous.

 

“I mean, it’s all about technicalities, but… it didn’t seem right that you wouldn’t have one. I got it from Chiron this morning.”

 

Curious, Nico tore open the paper. Inside the box, there was a leather cord with three beads on it. The son of Hades looked up, speechless.

 

“You were always a camper to me,” Will explained helplessly. “You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to.”

 

Wordlessly, Nico held out the box to him.

 

“Help me put it on?”

 

The son of Apollo grinned, and Nico was once again reminded of the rising sun. Somehow, it felt right, sitting here on a blanket under the stars, as Will leaned forwards and fastened the leather cord around his neck. But when he finished, he didn’t pull back, instead sliding his hands to cup Nico’s face again, gazing into his eyes so intensely that Nico found it hard to breathe.

 

The tension was cut when suddenly above them, fireworks exploded into being. They both laughed, looking away for a moment, before Will leaned in again.

 

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood,” he whispered, and bent down to kiss him.

 

Nico could tell he was going to love it.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we have finally reached the end of this voluntary continuation to the Three Days. I'll won't be around for a while, but keep an eye out for the superfluous part three which takes Will and Nico into their year together pre-Trials of Apollo. OP out.


End file.
